NTA cancels grace marks awarded to 1,563 candidates

The National Testing Agency (NTA) lawyer on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the decision to give grace marks to 1,563 NEET-UG, 2024 candidates for admission to MBBS, BDS and other courses has been cancelled. The Centre and NTA’s counsel told the vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the candidates whose grace marks have been cancelled. They will be given the option to take the exam again on June 23.
The NTA said the results of the re-examination will be declared on June 30 and counselling for admission to MBBS, BDS and other courses will start from July 6. If any of the 1,563 candidates does not want to take the exam again, then their previous marks, without grace marks, will be given for the result.

Considering the arguments of the Center and NTA, the bench said that all the petitions, including the petition filed by Alakh Pandey, Chief Executive of Physics Wala, on the issue of giving grace marks, will be heard on July 8. These petitions also include petitions seeking cancellation of NEET UG 2024 due to allegations of question paper leak and other irregularities.
However, the court once again said that it will not stay the counselling process for admission. The court has fixed the next hearing of the case on July 8.
In fact, NTA conducted the examination on May 5 at 4,750 centres and about 24 lakh candidates participated in it. The results of the examination were expected to be declared on June 14, but were declared on June 4 as the evaluation of answer sheets was already completed.
Allegations such as question paper leak and granting of grace marks to more than 1,563 medical candidates led to protests and petitions have been filed in seven high courts and the Supreme Court.

Questions that beg answers

l How were grace marks calculated?
l What action will be taken by NTA to prevent such incidents in future?
l What steps has NTA taken to prevent cheating
l Will the questions raised about the exam be put to rest by removing the grace marks of 1563 candidates?
l What has happened so far in the FIR filed regarding the paper leak?
l What will happen to the exam centress on which questions were raised?
l Will an SIT be formed to investigate this matter?
l What evidence does NTA have to prove its transparency?
l Is the NTA system foolproof?
l How will NTA prove its credibility among the candidates after this incident?
l Will the NEET exam held on May 5 be cancelled?
l Will the results released on June 4 be cancelled?
l Will other candidates also get a chance to appear in the exam again?
l What will happen now in the hearing to be held on July 8 in the Top Court?
l When will NEET counselling start?