NEET 2024 Controversy: NTA urges SC to Transfer Plea on Paper Leak from High Court

New Delhi: Following its decision to withdraw the grace marks awarded to 1563 NEET UG 2024 candidates, the National Testing Agency (NTA) has now approached the Supreme Court seeking to transfer to the Top Court a plea filed in the Delhi High Court alleging paper leak and irregularities in the conducted of the undergraduate medical entrance examination, held on May 5, 2024.

The Supreme Court today i.e. on June 14, issued notice on the NTA's plea and tagged the transfer petition along with other petitions filed in connection with the alleged paper leak in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 exam. All these pleas have been scheduled for hearing on July 08, 2024.

This year's NEET UG 2024 exam was mired in controversies after a paper leak scam was revealed in Bihar. Around 13 people, including four examinees and their family members, were arrested in Bihar for their alleged involvement in the paper leak of the NEET-UG exam. Patna police sources had previously claimed that the NEET-UG question papers along with their answers were provided to around 20 aspirants a day before the date of the exam i.e. May 5, 2024.

Then, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police, which took over the investigation, revealed that the brokers involved in the NEET paper leak scam took between Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh from each of the medical aspirants in exchange for giving them the question paper of the NEET UG 2024 question paper ahead of the examination.

Also Read: Re-NEET likely on June 23rd for 1563 affected Candidates, Results by June 30th: NTA informs Supreme Court

Several pleas were filed in this connection against NTA alleging discrepancies in the NEET UG 2024 exam. As per the latest media report by Live Law, NTA has now filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking to transfer to the Top Court a plea filed in the Delhi HC alleging paper leak and irregularities in the conduct of NEET UG 2024. The Apex Court bench has issued notice on NTA's transfer plea.

The counsel for NTA, advocate Vardhaman Kaushik submitted before the Supreme Court that three other petitions have been filed in respect of the pleas in High Courts on the issue of grace marks. He stated that those transfer petitions are being withdrawn considering the decision taken by the authority to revoke the grace marks, which was recorded in the Supreme Court order dated 13.06.2024. He also submitted that the High Court will be informed of the Supreme Court's order on the issue of grace marks.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NEET UG 2024 shocked many as 67 candidates secured AIR 1, multiple candidates from a single centre secured full marks and some also secured 718 or 719 marks out of 720 marks, which seems impossible considering the NEET marking scheme.

When NTA tried to defend the results saying that several candidates were issued grace marks to compensate for the loss of time during the exam, further questions were raised. Pleas were also filed against NTA before the Supreme Court challenging the policy of granting grace marks.

Amid the uproar, the Union Government's counsel yesterday informed the Supreme Court that the committee set up in this regard recommended withdrawing the grace marks of 1563 candidates and informing them of their original scores, obtained without the grace marks. 

It has been proposed that these 1563 candidates would be given a choice of retaining their original scores (without grace marks) or appear in a retest, which will be held on 23rd June. The results of the retest will be published before 30th June, 2024 so that the NEET UG 2024 counselling could start from 6th July, 2024.

The other pleas filed before the Supreme Court in connection with the paper leak issues are listed for further hearing on July 8, 2024.

Also Read: Cancelling Grace Marks addresses Only Part of the Issue, What about 24 Lakh Candidates? Doctors Express Concerns over NTA Decision