NEW DELHI: The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 counselling has been deferred until further notice, including the all-India quota (AIQ) seat counselling that was set to commence today. No new date has been announced as of now.
In anticipation of the Supreme Court’s important hearing on the NEET-UG controversy, the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) acknowledged the allegations of irregularities and paper leak during the examination. However, they have informed the court that cancelling the test is unnecessary, as only a miniscule number of students were involved, and the interests of the 23 lakh students who took the examination honestly should not be compromised.
The Centre and NTA, in separate affidavits submitted to the apex court, agreed that the impact of irregularities, cheating, impersonation, malpractices, and paper leak was limited and restricted to a few centres in Patna and Godhra, and that the students involved did not gain the advantage they were seeking.
The NEET for undergraduate admissions in 2024, held on May 5, encountered controversies surrounding alleged irregularities in the scoring process. In response to apprehensions about inflated scores resulting from the awarding of ‘grace marks,’ the authorities decided to conduct a retest on June 23 for the 1,563 candidates who were impacted by this issue.
Among the affected candidates, 813 chose to participate in the retest, seeking to obtain scores that accurately reflected their performance. However, a significant portion, constituting 48% of the affected candidates, opted to retain their original scores without the inclusion of the controversial grace marks.
