NEET 2024: Supreme Court Issues Notice to NTA over plea Alleging 'inconsistent' Marks Calculation
New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) has now been accused of "inconsistent" calculation of marks on the NEET-UG 2024 OMR sheets as a plea has been filed against the Agency before the Supreme Court by a learning app.
Agreeing to hear the matter, the Apex Court vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti issued a notice to NTA and sought a response from the agency in this regard by July 08, 2024, when the matter will be heard next, along with other pleas filed in connection to NEET-UG 2024 examination.
The plea was filed by a learning app, which also referred to the grant of OMR sheets to the students who appeared in the medical entrance exam and alleged that several students did not get them.
As per the latest media report by India Today, asking the NTA to submit a response on the time limit to raise the grievances regarding the OMR sheets, the bench observed, "Let us know if there is a timeline to provide the OMR sheets. As of now we will tag it. Let NTA seek instructions on this."
During the hearing of the case, the bench also pulled up the coaching centres and said that they had "no role to play". The Apex Court bench observed, "This is one of the reasons where we see this role played by the coaching centres, bagpipers. They have hardly any role to play. Their obligation and duty...if they have discharged their service that is the end of the matter. They have not undertaken to see that everything that Centre is supposed to do it will be taken care by them."
NDTV has reported that filing the plea, the learning app alleged exam rigging in the NEET UG 2024 exam held on May 5, 2024. The plea raised concerns about the integrity of the exam and claimed that awarding grace marks to more than 1500 students significantly impacted the overall rankings and fairness of the exam.
Further, the plea also argued for the rights of the students to access their Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets. However, the Apex Court bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti questioned the fundamental rights allegedly violated by the NTA's actions.
CBI is currently investigating the allegations of paper leak in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. Medical Dialogues has been reporting about the NEET UG 2024 paper leak controversies. The allegations of paper leak first came to light 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.
Multiple pleas have been filed before the High Courts and the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the alleged paper leak scam. Some of the pleas demanded the scrapping of the NEET UG 2024 exam and holding a retest. Meanwhile, during the case proceedings, NTA earlier decided to withdraw the grace marks awarded to 1563 candidates and hold an optional retest for those candidates. Those who did not opt for the retest were allowed to retain their original marks, without the grace marks.
Central Government on June 22, 2024, handed over the charge of investigation in the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 examination to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
"Certain cases of alleged irregularities / cheating / impersonation / malpractices have been reported. For transparency on the conduct of the examination process, the Ministry of Education, Government of India after a review has decided to entrust the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for comprehensive investigation," the Ministry of Education stated in a release.
The CBI is currently planning to seek the custody of all 18 accused for interrogation. Currently all the accused- including 13 from Patna and 5 from Jharkhand- are in judicial custody. While investigating the case, earlier the Economic Offences Wing (EOU) had arrested these individuals. However, later the case was handed over to CBI on Monday.
Also Read: No Urgency: Supreme Court declines to Implead CBI, ED in NEET Paper Leak Case
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