Plea filed in Supreme Court for fresh NEET exam

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held on May 5.

Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and Shaik Roshan Mohiddin filed the plea, claiming they were members of an organisation working to assist and benefit students.

In their joint plea, the petitioners sought a direction for formation of Special Investigation Team "SIT" for expeditious and thorough investigation of the malpractices and fraud involved in the NEET examination and to secure punishment of those found guilty.

They asked the court to also issue a mandamus directing the authorities to take such effective and meaningful steps to ensure that malpractices and fraud, in particular leaking of the question papers as has happened in the previous examination, does not happen any longer.

The petitioners said as many as 67 Students received full marks i.e. 720 out of 720.

Out of which eight students were from same centre which in itself created a doubt about the manner in which the exam was conducted. Moreover, some students have secured 718 and 719 marks which is statically not possible. Some students were given grace marks, they pointed out.

The plea alleged that the grant of grace marks by the National Testing Agency, purportedly due to delay during the exam, was a mala fide exercise to give “backdoor entry” to certain students.

It also claimed that a provisional answer key released by the respondent on April 29, picked the correct answers out of the choices given to the candidates, but more than 13,000 students challenged the key because the textbook contained information that pointed to a different answer. “The medical field requires a deep and thorough understanding of scientific and medical knowledge. Cheating or using unfair means to pass exams can lead to a lack of competence, potentially endangering the health and lives of patients," the plea said.

The petitioners also contended several petitions have been filed in High Courts, which may lead multiplicity of proceedings and wastage of court's time, so the instant petition has been filed to settle the matter.

A similar petition has also been filed in the top court which has been fixed for consideration in July.

Several aspirants of the medical entrance exam NEET have alleged inflation of marks which led to a record 67 candidates bagging the top rank, including six from the same exam centre.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducted the examination, however, denied any irregularities and said the changes made in the NCERT textbooks and grace marks for losing time at the examination centres are some of the reasons behind the students scoring higher marks.