1563 NEET Aspirants To Retake Exam As Grace Marks Cancelled: Re-Test On June 23

The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to revoke the grace marks awarded to 1563 students.

The counsel for the Union Government stated that these candidates will receive notifications regarding their updated scores, which will not include the previously awarded grace marks.

The students will then have the option to undergo a re-test. Also, if they choose not to take the re-test, their scores from the exam held on May 5 will be taken into account.

Explaining the measures taken by the government to address the issue, it said, "A committee meeting was held on June 10, 11, and 12 to investigate the allegations. Based on the committee's recommendations, the scorecards of the affected candidates will be cancelled, and a re-examination will be held for these students".

Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta presided over the vacation bench handling the petitions, which also request a halt to the counselling process.

The apex court stated that it will not stop the counselling process for NEET-UG 2024.

"Counselling will proceed as scheduled and there will be no interruption. If the exam continues, everything else will proceed as well, so there is no cause for concern," the Supreme Court said.There were three petitions calling for the cancellation of NEET UG 2024 and a retest, citing alleged irregularities in grace mark allocation.

The NTA conducted the NEET (UG) 2024 examination on May 5 across 4,750 centers, with approximately 24 lakh candidates participating. Originally slated for June 14, the results were announced on June 4, reportedly due to expedited answer sheet evaluations.

According to the plea, the NTA notified candidates about the grace marks reactively rather than proactively upon result declaration. This clarification arose only after queries regarding the awarding of 718/719 marks out of 720, which seemed technically implausible according to the marking scheme.

The plea calls for an extensive investigation by an independent high-powered committee into the examination's conduct. It questions the rationale behind the adoption of a grace marks policy that deviated from previous NTA practices and demands transparency regarding the 1563 candidates compensated for lost time, including their original and revised marks.

Filed on June 1, the plea stems from a Bihar police investigation into an alleged question paper leak. The anomaly of 67 students scoring a perfect 720, particularly with six from a single centre in Haryana's Faridabad, has raised suspicions of irregularities.

Student protests in Delhi on June 10 demanded an investigation into alleged irregularities, notably the role of grace marks in 67 students attaining the top rank.