The Centre has decided to withdraw the grace marks awarded to 1,563 National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 candidates. During a hearing of Supreme Court petitions today, the counsel appearing for the Union Government informed the apex court that an opinion of re-test would be given to these candidates.
According to LiveLaw.in, Advocate Kanu Agarwal representing the Union Government, told a vacation bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the decision was taken by the panel constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on June 12 to "allay the fears of the students". Agarwal said that a meeting was held on June 10, 11 and 12 by the committee constituted by NTA and it has made recommendations to cancel the scorecards of 1,563 candidates and a re-exam will be conducted.
Disposing of one petition which challenged the grace marks, the court recorded the statement of Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik for the NTA that the re-test will be notified today, June 13, and will likely be held on June 23. The results of the re-test will be published before June 30 so that the counselling scheduled on July 6 can start, LiveLaw.in reported.
Three petitions
The apex court was dealing with three petitions challenging the irregularities in NEET UG. While one was filed by Alakh Pandey, Founder of test prep start-up Physics Wallah who claimed grace marks were arbitrary, the second petition was filed by Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) members Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Dr Shaik Roshan Mohiddin, seeking recall of the NEET-UG 2024 results and conductuction of a fresh exam.
The third petition was filed by NEET candidate Jaripiti Kartheek, challenging the award of grace marks as compensation for alleged loss of time during the exam, as stated by LiveLaw.in.
According to PTI, all pleas, including those seeking cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 on account of allegations of malpractices, will be taken up on July 8, 2024.
