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Tamil Nadu NEET Scandal

NEET-UG: Grace marks will be withdrawn, re-test option given to candidates  

June 13, 2024

Much after the controversy reached the brim, the centre has not informed the Supreme Court that grace marks given to National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG students will be cancelled.  

The Centre on Thursday (June 13) informed the Apex Court that a decision has been taken to cancel the grace marks awarded to 1563 students. These 1563 candidates will be informed of their actual scores (without the grace marks) and will be given the option to appear for a re-test, the counsel appearing for the Union Government informed the Supreme Court today. If those students do not wish to take the re-test, their scores of the exams held on May 5 will be considered.

It may be recollected that on June 8, the NTA announced the formation of a 4-member committee to review the results of the students who were awarded grace marks to compensate for the “loss of time” suffered while appearing for the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The issue has invoked social media fury.  

Advocate Kanu Agarwal, representing the Union Government, told a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, that the decision was taken by the panel constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on June 12 to “allay the fears of the students”. Agarwal stated that the panel was of the view that the award of compensatory marks to 1563 students on the grounds of loss of time resulted in a “skewed situation” because the grace marks had to be limited only to the unattempted questions. After examining all aspects, the committee concluded that it would be appropriate to recommend the cancellation of the scorecards of the 1563 students.

Taking note of these facts, the bench dictated the following order : “The petitioner who had appeared for NEET-UG 2024 has raised a grievance regarding the grant of compensatory marks to 1563 candidates using the normalisation formula where, at the examination centres, the candidates who were not allowed 3 hours 20 minutes time admissible to them were permitted to take their examination for lesser time. The compensatory marks have been awarded based on the recommendation of a Grievance Redressal Committee relying upon a judgment of this Court in the case of Disha Panchal vs.Union of India and others.

“This award of compensatory marks was challenged. The National Testing Agency constituted another committee to reconsider the issue and gave its recommendation on the award of compensatory marks. The subsequent committee held meetings on 10, 11 and 12th June 2024 and has made recommendations which have been placed before us.According to the recommendations, it has been suggested that the score-cards of the affected 1,563 candidates issued on June 4, 2024 will stand cancelled and withdrawn. These affected 1563 candidates will be informed of their actual scores without compensatory marks. The results of the affected candidates who do not wish to appear for the re-examination will be declared on their actual marks without compensation obtained by them in the examination held on May 5, 2024 and the marks obtained by the candidates who will appear in the retest will be considered and their marks based on the examination held on May 5, 2024 will be discarded.”

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