Much after the controversy reached the brim, the centre has not informed the Supreme Court that grace marks given to National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG students will be cancelled.
The Centre on Thursday (June 13) informed the Apex Court that a decision has been taken to cancel the grace marks awarded to 1563 students. These 1563 candidates will be informed of their actual scores (without the grace marks) and will be given the option to appear for a re-test, the counsel appearing for the Union Government informed the Supreme Court today. If those students do not wish to take the re-test, their scores of the exams held on May 5 will be considered.
It may be recollected that on June 8, the NTA announced the formation of a 4-member committee to review the results of the students who were awarded grace marks to compensate for the “loss of time” suffered while appearing for the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The issue has invoked social media fury.
Advocate Kanu Agarwal, representing the Union Government, told a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, that the decision was taken by the panel constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on June 12 to “allay the fears of the students”. Agarwal stated that the panel was of the view that the award of compensatory marks to 1563 students on the grounds of loss of time resulted in a “skewed situation” because the grace marks had to be limited only to the unattempted questions. After examining all aspects, the committee concluded that it would be appropriate to recommend the cancellation of the scorecards of the 1563 students.
Taking note of these facts, the bench dictated the following order : “The petitioner who had appeared for NEET-UG 2024 has raised a grievance regarding the grant of compensatory marks to 1563 candidates using the normalisation formula where, at the examination centres, the candidates who were not allowed 3 hours 20 minutes time admissible to them were permitted to take their examination for lesser time. The compensatory marks have been awarded based on the recommendation of a Grievance Redressal Committee relying upon a judgment of this Court in the case of Disha Panchal vs.Union of India and others.
