NEET EXAM 2024: Supreme Court cancels out grace marks of 1,563 candidates and also announces retest on June 23rd

The Supreme Court came into a decision to cancel the grace marks given to 1,563 students and these students are given a retest opportunity on 23rd June 2024 for the NEET exam 2024 .The results of the retest will be mostly likely declared on 30th June 2024.The court’s order came in according to the decision made by the government’s committee that was formed to review the grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates. If the students don’t want to write the retest then the marks will be the same as before but without the grace marks .  

The decision was taken by the vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Metha. The National testing agency (NTA) told the court that “the committee has decided to invalidate the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who received grace marks. These students will have the option to retake the exam on June 23rd. The results will be released by June 30th.”

The counselling session for the admissions of  MBBS and MD will happen in the month of July. The court also said that “Counselling will go on and we will not stop it. If the exam goes then everything goes in totality so nothing to fear,”The supreme court also mentioned that all petitions regarding the ongoing NEET examination controversies will be taken up on 8th July 2024.

The plea was filed in the apex court on 5th May 2024 with alleged irregularities stating malpractice and paper leak.The Paper leak during a national level examination can be considered a violation to article 14 which is right to equality if found true by the court.

Reacting to the alleged paper leak during the NEET examination 2024, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan dismissed reports claiming paper leak during the national level examination  as there is no evidence to prove it.  

Physics Wallah’s move 

Alakh Pandey who is the CEO of the educational technology company “ Physics Wallah” earlier this week moved to the Supreme Court questioning the decision of NTA to give grace marks to certain candidates.According to Pandey’s petition filed in the supreme court, he said that he collected representations of about 20,000 candidates in which about 1,500 candidates were awarded with grace marks showing about 70 to 80 marks. 

His lawyer Deepak Sai said that he represents Alakh Pandey, who has gathered over 20,000 student signatures alleging inconsistent awarding of grace marks. The petition claims at least 1,500 students received 70-80 points in these marks. The petitioner challenged this arbitrary practice.

Photo credit: encrack 

Pandey also stated about the major confusions and anxieties of the NEET aspirants who really worked hard to achieve their dreams and aspirations. These students feel that their future is in risk due to the strange events that are happening after the results were announced on June 4th.  

Protests against the NEET exam 2024 

Students are protesting in different parts of the country regarding the alleged irregularities that happened during the NEET exam.In West Bengal students were protesting in front of the headquarters of the department of education in West Bengal.The protest happened under the leadership of All India Democratic Students’ Organisation (AIDSO) .The students sat in front of the building in protest to the alleged irregularities.

Photo credit : the indian express 

The exam was conducted on 5th May 2024 with over 24 lakh candidates writing the examination from all the parts of the country. The results of the exam were announced on 4th June 2024 on the same day when the Lok Sabha election results were announced. After the results were announced it was noted that about 67 candidates were ranked No 1 in the All India ranking. Many candidates were awarded with grace marks. And also there were many candidates who received marks above 710 which is not possible