NEET UG 2024: 17 candidates from centres in Bihar debarred for ‘malpractice’, says NTA

NTA also held the retest for 1,563 candidates who had been earlier awarded grace marks for "loss of exam time". Of these 1,563 candidates, only 813 students (approximately 52 per cent) appeared for the retest.

Protests against the NEET exam are being held across the country. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

A total of 17 students, who gave the NEET-UG examination from centres in Bihar on May 5, have been debarred based on Bihar government’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) report.

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The news comes a few hours after The Indian Express reported that in its report submitted to the Centre on Saturday, the EOU has said that its probe “clearly suggests a paper leak” in the NEET-UG examination.

Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA) also conducted a retest for 1,563 candidates who had been earlier awarded grace marks for “loss of exam time”. Of these 1,563 candidates, only 813 students (approximately 52 per cent) appeared for the retest.

The students who appeared for the exam today will be issued a revised score. However, the students who have skipped the retest will now be awarded their old original score, which is the score without the grace marks.

As per data, none of the two candidates from Chandigarh appeared for the exam. A total of 291 students out of 602 appeared from Chhattisgarh, 1 student from Gujarat, 287 out of 494 appeared from Haryana and 234 appeared from Meghalaya’s Tura.

For now, the Centre has removed NTA Chief, Subodh Kumar Singh, from the post of DG of NTA and put him on “compulsory wait” in the Department of Personnel and Training. This decision came even as another examination — NEET-PG scheduled on June 23 — was put on hold, affecting approximately 2 lakh candidates.

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NTA | Govt high-level committee | DG Subodh Kumar Singh removed | IAS Pradeep Singh Kharola takes over |

The Centre has now handed over the alleged paper leak matter to the CBI.