A controversy over the NEET exam results has erupted after six of the 67 students who shared a perfect 720 score were of the same exam centre in Haryana.
Students, parents and the Congress party have alleged paper leak concerns over such scores.
The National Testing Agency announced the NEET UG 2024 results on Tuesday, when the Lok Sabha election results were also being announced.
"Sixty-seven candidates scored the same 99.997129 percentile score, therefore, they shared the all India rank one. The merit list will be prepared using a tie-breaking formula with those getting higher marks or percentile score in Biology will be given preference followed by Chemistry and Physics," a senior NTA official had said.
Parents wrote letters to the NTA, seeking a thorough investigation into the alleged irregularities in the NEET UG results before the counselling begins.
Many medical aspirants and students also raised questions at the results and demanded a re-examination for the NEET UG 2024, citing alleged paper leaks and last-minute awarding of grace marks, Hindustan Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Congress party also raked up the controversy over the NEET results and took a dig at the Modi government. The grand old party took to X, saying that other than the scores there are "many other regularities related to NEET exam have also come to light".
"First due to paper leak and now due to result error, the future of lakhs of youth of the country is getting ruined," Congress said.
Hitting out at the Centre and said, "It is clear that this government cannot get any paper done without leaking it," adding that "Sir claims to stop wars in foreign countries but he is unable to even stop paper leaks in the country."
The National Test Agency on Wednesday released a statement and said it received a few representations and court cases from NEET UG 2024 candidates "raising concerns of loss of time during the conduct of the examination" held on May 5.
"The loss of examination time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with grace marks. So, candidate's marks can be 718 or 719 also," NTA clarified in its statement.
An NTA official reportedly said that many students scored high marks due to the normalisation process, saying that the Physics and Chemistry sections were comparatively easier and according to NCERT books.
This was to address equity and to discourage coaching mafia, Times of India cited the official as saying.
A parent representative Ruiee Kapoor noted that NTA's justification was not satisfactory enough. "Also 67 students scoring full marks is unprecedented in NEET-UG and highly unusual. There is also a bunch of students with higher marks, which has led to major discrepancy in the marks and their corresponding marks," Kapoor was quoted as saying by ToI.
She noted that though the overall cut-off margin has been raised to 164, it'll still be difficult for students with a perfect score to get a seat in AIIMS Delhi, which is highly sought after by aspirants.
"Several students are raising some valid points. How come students with same sequence roll number scored the same marks. This is a serious issue. We don't want such doctors to serve our country. This must be investigated," said Anubha Shrivastava, a lawyer and president of India Wide Parents Association.
Another X user Nitish Rajput said NTA awarded grace marks according to the court order but the students argue that this sudden decision is unjust because the agency has not mentioned any methodology to award these 'grace marks'.
"Calls for transparency in the process have only grown louder. The controversy for the NTA is brewing as lakhs of students demand re-examination citing lack of clarity in NTA's explanations and have even pushed for the Supreme Court’s intervention. Grace marks given for lost exam time have raised concerns of fairness," he added.
Another parent representative alleged that the exam was "managed".
He asked that how come six students who got the perfect 720 score were from the Haryana's Faridabad exam centre.
A senior NTA official clarified on this allegation and said in that particular exam centre, students had lost 45 minutes owing to the incorrect paper distribution. "When it was corrected, a formula as per previous court order was used in a few cities including this," the official added.
The parent representative noted how aspirants with less than 660 marks have very low chances of getting admission to government medical colleges.
Around 24 lakh students across 557 cities in India appeared for the NEET UG 2024 exams, including 14 cities outside India.
NEET-UG is the qualifying entrance exam for admission to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery (BAMS), Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery (BSMS), Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery (BUMS), and Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) and BSc (H) Nursing courses.
(With agency inputs)
