NEET UG 2024 Result: The National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Union Education Ministry Saturday announced the formation of a four-member committee to review the results of over 1,500 candidates who were awarded “grace marks” to compensate for the “loss of time” suffered while appearing for this year’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate).
The announcement came amid an uproar over the NEET-UG results this year, with states like Maharashtra demanding a retest and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe into alleged discrepancies highlighted by students on social media.
Announced on June 4, the results drew immediate attention for the extraordinarily large number of candidates who got the perfect score of 720/720 and for the fact that some candidates got 718 or 719 — marks that others claimed were impossible to get in the scheme of the exam. There have also been allegations of a paper leak, which the NTA has denied.
On Saturday, NTA Director General Subodh Kumar Singh denied irregularities in the results. He attributed the unusually high number of top rankers (67) to a relatively easier paper this year and the agency’s decision to award additional marks to students whose exams did not start on time. Singh, however, also told reporters that a committee will look into the results of the 1,500 candidates who were awarded grace marks.
A former UPSC chairman and three other academicians have been selected for this panel, which has started investigation and is expected to announce its verdict before next Saturday.
The verdict will not affect other results, the NTA said. “We are aware that the counselling process (for MBBS courses) is about to begin, but this will not affect the admission process. This special committee will give their verdict before next Saturday and accordingly the next step will be taken, but we are trying our best to ensure there is no hiccup in the admission process,” Singh told The Indian Express.
As of now, a total of 1,563 students (six of whom got a spot in the top ranks) were given grace marks based on a normalisation formula, which the NTA has not shared. These candidates were from six centres — two in Chhattisgarh (one each in Balod and Dantewada), one each in Meghalaya, Surat, Haryana’s Bahadurgarh, and Chandigarh.
Meanwhile, students have filed petitions in a number of high courts.
One of these writ petitions, filed by a NEET UG candidate in the Delhi High Court, was listed for hearing on June 12 after the issuance of notice by a vacation bench on June 7. This petitioner has challenged the final answer key of question number 29 in Physics as well as the compensatory time given to the candidates at a few centres.
Another PIL, filed before the division bench of the Calcutta High Court, challenged the award of 718 or 719 marks to some candidates in NEET UG 2024. While hearing this matter on June 6, the High Court directed the NTA to file an affidavit within 10 days, disclosing how the reservation policy of the state as well as the central government has been followed in preparing the merit list. The matter has been listed for the next hearing after two weeks before a regular bench.
Additionally, a writ petition has been filed by another NEET UG candidate before the Supreme Court. The court, while hearing the matter on May 17, issued notice to the respondents and listed the matter for the next hearing on July 8.
NTA declared the NEET UG 2024 result on June 4 — 10 days before the scheduled date — and a record 67 students achieved the NEET all-India rank (AIR) 1. Of these 67, 17 candidates got the rank out of merit, 44 students got the rank due to a wrong answer in the Physics section and six students got the rank due to grace marks given because of loss of exam time.
NEET UG is the qualifying entrance exam for admission to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery (BAMS), Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery (BSMS), Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS), and Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) and BSc (H) Nursing courses.
The NEET UG cut-off this year for the UR/ EWS category candidates has gone up from 720-137 last year to 720-164 this year. For the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward class candidates, the NEET UG 2024 cut-off has increased to 163-129 from 136-107 last year. Similarly, the NEET UG 2024 cut off for SC, ST and OBC-PH candidates, the cut off has increased from 120-107 last year to 145-129 this year. As many as 11,65,904 students in the UR/ EWS category have been placed in the 50th percentile category.
Apart from the uproar on social media, the discrepancies in the results have also been picked up by political parties. “The Modi government is directly responsible for this. For the candidates appearing in recruitment exams, then facing several irregularities, getting caught in the labyrinth of paper leaks, is playing with their futures. The BJP has cheated the youth of the country,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X on Friday.
“We demand that a high-level investigation should be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court so that our talented students appearing in NEET and other exams get justice,” he had said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said the trends from the latest NEET results have once again vindicated the DMK on its stand opposing the exam, reiterating that the entrance test goes against social justice and federalism.
NEET UG 2024 Result: The committee has started the investigation, and is expected to announce their verdict before next Saturday. (Express photo by Deeksha Teri) 
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