NEET-UG Counselling Deferred Until Further Notice

The NEET-PG 2024 entrance exam has been rescheduled to August 11 by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, following an integrity review.

The counselling for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) aka NEET UG was deferred on Saturday until further notice. The new date is yet to be announced.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for conducting entrance exams for MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and related courses, along with the Union Education Ministry, has become the focal point of media scrutiny and student protests over allegations of widespread malpractices.

Responding to the development, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the government and wrote on X:"The whole NEET-UG issue is getting worse by the day. The non-biological PM and his biological Education Minister are adding further proof to their demonstrated incompetence and insensitivity," he said in an X post.

"The future of lakhs of our youth is simply unsafe in their hands," Jairam Ramesh added.

Originally scheduled for June 14, the results of the exam were unexpectedly announced on June 4, attributed to the early completion of answer sheet evaluations.

An unprecedented 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720 in the NTA's history, including six from a centre in Faridabad, Haryana, raising concerns about irregularities. Following this, 1,563 candidates who received grace marks in NEET-UG were asked to re-take the exam, but 750 opted not to.

The investigation into the alleged paper leak was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), resulting in the arrest of six individuals, including the main conspirator, Aman Singh.

Recently, the Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the re-conduct of NEET-UG 2024, citing potential disruption to the academic schedule and arguing that widespread evidence of malpractice is lacking.

Echoing this stance, the NTA also submitted a separate affidavit to the Supreme Court on the same day, arguing against exam cancellation as 'counterproductive' and potentially detrimental to the future prospects of deserving students, despite acknowledging that instances of malpractice were 'minuscule', 'sporadic', and confined to identifiable individuals and locations where strict actions are being taken.

NEET-PG entrance exam

The NEET-PG entrance exam will now take place on August 11 in two shifts, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) announced on Friday. This follows a previous notice from June 22, which postponed the exam. The eligibility cut-off date remains August 15.

On June 22, the Centre delayed the NEET-PG 2024 exam as a precautionary measure. The Ministry of Health cited recent allegations questioning the integrity of some competitive exams. They decided to thoroughly assess the robustness of NEET-PG's processes, conducted by NBEMS with technical support from TCS.

The Ministry of Health stated, "Taking into consideration, the recent incidents of allegations regarding the integrity of certain competitive examinations, the Ministry of Health has decided to undertake a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG Entrance Examination, conducted by the National Board of Examination for medical students."