NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case: Supreme Court adjourns the hearing of the case relating to the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The apex court said it will hear the NEET-UG case on Thursday, July 18. Supreme Court notes in its order that some of the parties in the case haven't received the affidavits filed by the Centre and NTA and they need to prepare their responses before arguments.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday (July 11) filed its investigation report in the Supreme Court in connection with the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case. As per the information, the CBI report was submitted in a sealed cover at around 9:45 am.
Centre denies mass malpractice in NEET UG 2024
The National Testing Agency (NTA) in its affidavit in the Supreme Court on the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak case denied any mass malpractice in the medical entrance exam. Centre said that the data analytics done by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores.
The Centre said that counselling will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July. For any candidate, if it is found that he/she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, the candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards, the NTA told the Supreme Court in its affidavit.
The NTA also informed the Supreme Court that the Telegram videos allegedly showing photos of leaked paper are fake and manipulated.
It said NTA has carried out an analysis of the distribution of marks of candidates in NEET-UG 2024 at the National, State and City level and also the Centre level. This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks.
The National Testing Agency filed its affidavit in the Supreme Court just a day before it will hear 43 petitions, filed from all across the country and transferred to the top court, in the NEET UG 2024 paper leak case.
NEET-UG exam 2024
The NEET-UG is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. The Centre and the NTA had on June 13 told the top court that they had cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses. The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates appeared for it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.
The issue relating to the grant of grace marks in the NEET-UG exam has already been closed by the Supreme Court after NTA submitted the scorecards of 1,563 candidates, who were awarded compensatory marks on account of the loss of time, had been withdrawn and cancelled. These candidates were given the option to appear in a re-test or may appear in counselling on the basis of actual marks obtained in the exam without normalisation.
