NEET 2024 Row: Fresh petitions in Supreme Court on grace marks, re-exam, paper leak case

NEW DELHI: Fresh petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court concerning the grace marks awarded to candidates in the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) 2024, as per Live Law reports. While some NEET UG 2024 candidates have sought the constitution of a new panel comprising retired judges of either Supreme Court or a high court to review the grace marks, the head of the edtech firm Physics Wallah has challenged the grace marks themselves.

The petitioners also sought directions to the Bihar Police for producing the records and status report on the investigation conducted in the paper leak case. Moreover, the aspirants demanded cancellation of the May 5 exam and a re-test of NEET.

Alakh Pandey, CEO of Physics Wallah, in his petition questioned the additional marks awarded by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in NEET exam to 1,563 candidates. He has collected representations from around 20,000 students showing that the candidates have received 70 to 80 marks randomly.

Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by candidates and sought NTA’s response on the alleged ‘malpractices’ in results and paper leak allegations. The apex court observed that the sanctity of the exam has been ‘compromised’.

NEET controversy

Following the controversy on NEET result 2024, NTA last week formed a four-member committee headed by the former chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to review the compensatory marks and said that the results of the 1,563 candidates will be revised, if required, based on the recommendations of the panel.

Even since the declaration of NEET 2024 result, candidates have been demanding a re-exam citing ‘irregularities’, ‘scam’, and paper leak. 67 students ranked first in this year’s exam, eight of them were apparently from the same centre. NTA had denied irregularities in the NEET results 2024 and clarified that grace marks due to loss of time and a physics question having two correct options were some of the reasons behind so many candidates scoring full 720 marks.