NEET UG 2024 Case Explained: Supreme Court Reaction

The NEET UG 2024 fiasco has been seemingly grabbing headlines for the last few days even as an apparent solution to the issue still needs to be reached. In a fresh development, a NEET applicant from Andhra Pradesh has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court wherein he has challenged the decision of the National Testing Agency to grant grace marks to students in the examination.

A report by Live Law stated that the Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution by Jaripate Karthik, which challenges the NTA's action in awarding grace marks to 1536 candidates on the grounds of 'loss of time'.

Additionally, the counsels for the petitioner have even sought for an early listing of the matter.

Besides, another petition was filed in the Supreme Court to recall the NEET-UG 2024 results, thereby seeking fresh examinations. 

Notably, the exam was conducted by the NTA on May 5, 2024, from 2 pm to 5.20 pm IST at 4750 Centres in 571 cities (including 14 cities abroad) for more than 24 lakh candidates.

For the unversed, the controversy erupted over an alleged paper leak case and a consequent outrage over the “inflation of marks” of 1,563 students who were compensated for the loss of time. Students from at least six centers in states, including Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Surat, and Chandigarh, had complained about the loss of time during exams.

NTA officials had opined that the students at these centers could not get the full 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete the exam due to administrative reasons, including the distribution of the wrong question paper, torn OMR sheets, or delay in the distribution of OMR sheets, among others.

Subsequently, the results announced on June 4, 2024, triggered a massive uproar, with several aspirants and parents demanding a probe and seeking a “re-exam”, alleging that the paper was leaked at certain centers where students got high scores.

The committee in question is being headed by a former UPSC chairman, as informed by the DG NTA. He further stated that the integrity of the exam was not compromised as out of 24 lakh students, the issue has risen for only 1600 students.