NEET grace marks scrapped,No proof of paper leak, says Pradhan

The Centre 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 others courses has been cancelled. A vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was told by the counsel for the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) that the students, who were given grace marks, will be given an option to appear for the re-test likely to be held on 23rd June. The counsel representing NTA said that the counselling schedule announced earlier will not be disturbed since the results of the re-test would be declared by June 30.The Supreme Court reiterated it would not stay the NEET UG 2024 admission counselling process.  

NEET-UG 2024: Issue of Compensatory/Grace Marks

Re-test of all 1563 candidates will be held on 23rd June 2024. pic.twitter.com/G7mxKYUZ69

— National Testing Agency (@NTA_Exams) June 13, 2024

Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan rejected allegations of paper leak in medical entrance exam NEET-UG, saying there is no evidence of it."There is no evidence of paper leak in NEET-UG. The allegations of corruption in NTA are unfounded, it is a very credible body," Pradhan told reporters."The Supreme Court is hearing the matter and we will abide by its decision. We will ensure no student is at a disadvantage," he added."I want to assure the students and their parents that the Government of India and NTA are committed to providing justice to them. Twenty-four lakh students have successfully taken the NEET examination. There is no paper leak, no proof has been found yet," he said.

#WATCH | On the Supreme Court's hearing on the NEET-UG 2024 exam, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says "I want to assure the students and their parents that the Govt of India and NTA are committed to providing justice to them. 24 lakh students have successfully taken the… pic.twitter.com/pIldTPehEf

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2024

The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducted the NEET exam on May 5 across 4,750 centres, with about 24 lakh candidates appearing in it. Originally, the results were scheduled for June 14 but were announced earlier on June 4 due to faster evaluation of answer sheets. A total of 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720, a first in NTA's history. Six students from a centre in Faridabad, Haryana, were among them, sparking concerns about possible irregularities.

Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi has said that, the CBI should investigate this case affecting the future of 2.4 million children in the country Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is evading discussion and advocating the investigation by the NTA, under whose leadership this scam occurred raises doubts about impartiality.