NEET aspirants call for retest after row over grace marks

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, June 6

Alleging inflation of marks that led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank, including six from the same exam centre, several medical aspirants have asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to reconduct the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET UG)-2024.

The NTA, however, denied any irregularities and said changes made in NCERT textbooks and grace marks for lost time at examination centres were some of the reasons behind the students scoring high marks.

The NTA had announced the result on June 4, coinciding with the Lok Sabha election results, even though the tentative date for the declaration of the result was June 14.

Soon after the result, medical aspirants raised concerns over a staggering 67 students getting a perfect score of 720 out of 720. They also pointed out the same sequence of roll numbers of some of the top rank holders. A majority of these candidates are from same examination centres in different states — Rajasthan (11), Tamil Nadu (8), Maharashtra (7), Haryana (6) and then four each from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

In 2019 and 2020, there was one topper each. There were three toppers in 2021, one in 2022, and two last year. Scorecards of students getting 718 and 719 marks were circulated on social media, which educationists claim is impossible to achieve when each NEET question carries four marks and one mark each is given for negative marking. If a student omits a question four marks get deducted and if an answer is wrong five marks are reduced. So a student can either score 716 or 715.

In its defence, the NTA said candidates who experienced time loss during the examination had been granted grace marks. At several centres there was a delay in distribution of question papers, which resulted in loss of time of candidates.

The NTA, in a statement, said it received a few representations from candidates raising concerns over loss of time during the exam held on May 5 and hence grace marks were given. “Such cases/representations were considered by the NTA and the normalisation formula, which has been devised and adopted by the apex court in a judgement from 2018, to address the loss of time faced by candidates. The loss of time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. So their marks can be 718 or 719 too,” the NTA said.

Although the agency dismissed the paper leak claims, the Bihar police arrested 13 persons in connection with it in May. A criminal case was filed against three individuals in Gujarat’s Godhra district.