The Supreme Court said in the NEET UG 2024 case that there was no systemic violation in the exam. The paper leak was limited to Patna and Hazaribagh only. The committee constituted by the Center will identify possible vulnerabilities in the cyber security of the examination system and prepare SOPs for technological advancements for enhancing the investigation process, CCTV monitoring of examination centers. Apart from this, the court has also expanded the scope of the committee appointed by the Center under the chairmanship of former ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan to review the functioning of the agency and exam reforms.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that we have said that NTA should now refrain from its reversals in this matter. These reversals of NTA are not good for the students. The court questioned NTA for allowing change of examination center and opening a backdoor to allow new registration. The Chief Justice also questioned NTA’s decision to give grace marks to 1563 students to compensate for the loss of time due to giving wrong question paper.
Understand important things in points
- There was a controversy over a question in NEET 2024. In this, NTA had considered two answers as correct. Later, an expert panel of IIT Delhi confirmed that there was only one correct answer.
- Due to the decision of the agency, 44 students got full 720 marks.
- The court criticized the agency’s mistake and directed the expert committee to rectify the results.
- On June 22, an expert committee was constituted by the Central Government to examine measures to strengthen the examination process.
- The court directed the committee to prepare standard operating procedures (SOPs) for security arrangements in the examination process, registration, change of examination centres, sealing and storage of OMR sheets etc.
- Allocation of examination centres, CCTV surveillance, paper printing and transportation, use of secure vehicles, identity checks, technical measures to prevent cheating, etc. were asked to be considered.
- The committee has to prepare the report by September 30, 2024. The Education Ministry will have to prepare the programme in a month and then inform the court after two weeks.
- The court rejected the petition to cancel NEET 2024 on allegations of paper leak and irregularities. The court said that cancelling the exam would affect more than 23 lakh students and the academic calendar would be disrupted.
Things to note
- NEET-UG 2024 paper was leaked in Hazaribagh and Patna.
- Initial investigation by CBI found that around 155 students from Hazaribagh and Patna may have benefited from the scam.
- The CBI investigation is not complete, the court asked the government whether any abnormality was found in the results of 571 cities.
- The government presented a report of IIT Madras.
- The court found that the existing evidence did not prove that there was a widespread paper leak in the examination.
- The court said that if more beneficiaries are found in future investigations then action will be taken against them.
Important points of hearing
- There are a total of 180 questions in the exam, each question is of 4 marks, making a total of 720 marks. One mark is deducted for each wrong answer.
- The qualifying mark is 50th percentile, which is 164 marks out of 720. Candidates who have secured at least 164 marks are considered eligible for admission.
- The petitioners said that the paper was leaked on a large scale and there were flaws in the examination system.
- The central government and the agency said that the paper leak had happened in a limited area and the beneficiaries could be identified.
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