The physics problem: NEET UG toppers 2024 to reduce from 61 to 17? How NTA will revise merit list

NEW DELHI: The problem with one physics question will cost 4 marks for over four lakh candidates resulting in a reshuffle in their NEET ranks. The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the petition to cancel NEET UG 2024 and asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to upload the revised NEET UG merit list, after re-calculating the physics answer. It accepted the IIT Delhi panel report which stated that there was only one right answer for the controversial physics question.

Welcoming the SC verdict, the Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that the final NEET results 2024 will be declared within two days. Yesterday, a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud in its judgment said that there was no evidence on record to conclude that NEET UG exam 2024 was "vitiated" on account of "systemic breach" of its sanctity.

Around 23.33 lakh (23,33,297) candidates appeared in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test undergraduate (NEET UG 2024) held on May 5. Since 2019, the NTA has been responsible for administering the medical entrance exam for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private medical colleges across the country.

While the NEET controversy began with rumours of paper leak, the NTA was in the spotlight for ‘unfair’ awarding of grace marks, conduct of the exam, and other irregularities. The NEET UG results were declared on June 4, in which 67 candidates bagged the top All India rank. The NEET marks, 718 and 719, obtained by two candidates also raised more questions on the normalisation method used by the NTA to prepare the merit list.

In a clarification issued on June 6, the NTA said: “1,563 candidates were compensated for the loss of time and the revised marks of such candidates vary from -20 to 720 marks. Amongst these, the score of two candidates also happens to be 718 and 719 marks respectively due to compensatory marks.” Further, it ascertained that CCTV footage was analysed and it was found that the integrity of the exam was not compromised at these centres.

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Controversial physics question

The NTA had earlier informed that it received a total of 13,373 challenges to the provisional answer key of one question in Physics. The subject experts who review the objections raised by candidates held two options as the correct answer due to the differences in the old and new editions of the NCERT textbook.

Out of the 67 NEET toppers who obtained 720/720 marks, “44 are on account of the revision in one answer key of physics and 6 are on account of compensatory marks for loss of time.”

‘Option 4 is correct’

After the advocates argued multiple-days on NEET paper leak cases, the Supreme Court roped in IIT Delhi to find the correct answer for the physics question asked in the exam.

The NEET physics question had two statements, “Statement I: Atoms are electrically neutral as they contain an equal number of positive and negative charges. Statement II: Atoms of each element are stable and emit their characteristic spectrum.”

“In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below: (1) Statement I is incorrect but Statement II is correct. (2) Both Statement I and Statement II are correct. (3) Both Statement I and Statement II are incorrect. (4) Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect,” the options read.

A team of three subject experts from the Department of Physics headed by IIT Delhi director Rangan Banerjee opined that only one answer is correct.

"In view of the experts' determination, we have no manner of doubt with regard to the correct option... we accept the IIT Delhi report and accordingly the NTA shall re-tally the NEET UG result on the basis that option 4 represents the only correct answer to the question," the Supreme Court said.

How will NTA revise NEET merit list

As per the NEET results declared on June 4, a total of 67 candidates got top rank. This later dropped to 61 as the NTA removed the compensatory marks awarded to candidates for loss of time. The testing agency also conducted a re-test for 1,563 candidates who received grace marks, however, only 813 candidates took reNEET.

Now that the apex court has ordered the NTA to revise the results based on the correct option suggested by IIT Delhi, the number of NEET toppers are expected to drop further. Assuming that all 44 candidates who benefited from the physics question opted other than the one suggested by IIT-D, the total number of NEET UG toppers 2024 will be reduced from 61 to 17; which is a major drop.

The revised NEET UG merit list 2024 will be displayed soon on the NTA official website, exams.nta.ac.in/NEET/.