The National Testing Agency (NTA) will announce the final, re-calculated merit list to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG), as per observations made by the Supreme Court, within two days, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the media on Tuesday, hours after the top court’s verdict on the medical entrance test.
Even though the verdict has come as a major relief to the ruling BJP government, which had been under attack by the Opposition as well as students and parents for irregularities in the conduct of a high-stakes exam, the revised merit list could again become a factor of discontentment for candidates, as it could change the number of toppers.
“Why should candidates suffer again when the option they had ticked was considered right at the time of evaluation and marks given to all for the same. The confusion was on part of the exam conducting agency, not the students, who again will have to bear the burden of someone else’s fault,” said a Haryana-based student.
The SC on Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of NEET-UG 2024 that ran into controversy with allegations of paper leak and irregularities. The court held that there was no evidence on record to conclude that the exam was “vitiated” on account of “systemic breach of its sanctity”.
The SC told the NTA to declare re-calculated results based on the correct answer to the physics question on which IIT-Delhi has given its report.
The SC accepted the IIT-Delhi report and asked the NTA to accordingly “re-tally “the NEET-UG results on the basis that option no. 4 represents the only correct answer to the question. The confusion on the correct answer had made the NTA allot 4 marks to all candidates who ticked both options as the right answer, which resulted in 44 toppers.
“Initially, answer key by NTA showed second option to a question as the correct answer. However, after representations were taken into account, both option 2 and 4 was taken to be correct answers. However, IIT Delhi director leading a three-member committee has submitted a report stating option 4 was the correct one. The NTA will re-tally the results based on the correct answer as per IIT-Delhi report,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud stated.
The merit list will be revised based on the observations made by the SC during the hearing, said Pradhan at a press conference held at his residence on Tuesday following the court’s verdict.
“If anybody is found involved in exam irregularities, they will not be spared. There is zero tolerance for any kind of breach. The sanctity of any exam is supreme for us,” Pradhan told reporters.
This interim verdict will be followed by a detailed order. The verdict came in favour of the ruling BJP government, which had been facing widespread criticism for irregularities in the medical entrance test, which is country’s largest entry level exam that saw over 24 lakh students registering for it.
The SC told the NTA to declare re-calculated results on the basis of the correct answer to the physics question on which IIT-Delhi has given its report.
The merit list will be revised according to the observations made by the SC during the hearing, said Pradhan at a press conference held at his residence on Tuesday evening following the SC verdict.
“If anybody is found involved in exam irregularities, they will not be spared. There is zero tolerance for any kind of breach. The sanctity of any exam is supreme for us,” said Pradhan.
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