NEET 2022 re-exam on September 4 for candidates forced to remove innerwear in Kerala

NEW DELHI: The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct re-exam for candidates who were allegedly forced to remove innerwear before appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET UG 2022) in Kerala’s Kollam district. The NEET 2022 re-exam for these medical aspirants will be held on September 4, 2022.

"The NTA has allowed the affected students to re-appear for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) on September 4 in Kollam. Besides Kollam, re-examination will be held for the affected candidates of two centres in Rajasthan, two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh," the PTI reported.

The incident happened on July 17 when the NEET UG 2022 exam was held across the country. A row erupted soon after father of a NEET aspirant alleged that his daughter and other girls who reached Marthoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur, Kollam, to appear for the medical entrance exam were asked to remove bra and underwear during frisking.

Following this, the National Commission for Women and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights on July 19 sought action against the NEET frisking personnel. The Kerala education minister R Bindu said it was a huge error on part of the NTA. She said it “is sure to have impacted the mental bearing of the students while writing the exam”. “Such an act, carried out without even taking basic human rights into consideration, was completely irresponsible to say the least.”

The Kerala High Court had also sought a response of the NTA to a plea seeking a standard protocol for conducting examinations across the country in view of Kollam NEET row.

Also read | Haryana school mergers will close all girls-only schools in state: Teachers

Though the National Testing Agency (NTA) denied the claims, it later formed a fact-finding committee to visit Kollam and submit a report within four weeks.

The Centre Superintendent called the complaint “fictional”, the observer said that he did “not receive any complaint from anywhere. Later, both the NEET observer and an exam coordinator were arrested along with other NEET frisking personnel. The total arrest went up to seven. Out of the five women arrested, three of them work for an agency hired by the NTA.

As per various media reports, the NTA is expected to release NEET answer key 2022 by August 30 and declare NEET UG 2022 result by September 7 on the official website, neet.nta.nic.in.