Apex Court Accepts Recommendation By Centre To Permit Re-Examination For 1563 Candidates Given Compensatory Marks In NEET-UG 2024

The Supreme Court, today, allowed the recommendations by the Union of India and National Testing Agency ('NTA'), to conduct a re-examination for the 1563 candidates who were given compensatory marks in the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test-Under Graduate Exam, 2024 (NEET-UG, 2024). The re-examination is likely to be held on June 25, 2024.

A petition was filed by Jaripiti Kartheek under Article 32 of the Constitution raising a grievance regarding the grant of compensatory marks to 1563 candidates using a normalization formula where, at the examination centres, the candidates were given less than three hours twenty minutes to complete their exam.

Two other petitions were also filed by Alakh Pandey alias Physics Wallah and another one by Abdullah Faiz challenging the NEET-UG 2024 exam's alleged paper leak and seeking directions from the Court. The Court issued a notice in these petitions and listed it on July 8, 2024, with other similar petitions.

The Vacation Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta ordered, "According to the recommendations, the Scorecards of affected 1563 candidates issued on 04.06.2024 will stand cancelled and withdrawn. These affected 1563 candidates will be informed of their actual scores without compensatory marks. Further, re-examination will be conducted for the affected 1563 candidates. The result of these affected candidates who do not wish to appear for re-examination will be declared based on their actual marks without compensation obtained by them in the examination held on 5th of May, 2024 and the marks obtained by the candidates who will appear in the restest will be considered and their marks based on examination on 05.05.2024 will be discarded."

Advocate Balaji Yelamanjula appeared for the Petitioner-Kartheek. Advocate J Sai Deepak appeared for Petitioner-Alakh Pandey. Advocate Kanu Agarwal appeared for the UOI. Advocate Naresh Kaushik appeared for the NTA.

The Union of India submitted the minutes of the meeting and decisions taken by the committee held on June 10, June 11 and June 12, 2024, which decided the re-examination of the candidates who were given compensatory marks by the NTA.

The Court also noted that a grievance redressal committee was constituted, relying upon a judgment of the Supreme Court in Disha Panchal v. Union Of India and Ors. (2018 SC) and the NTA constituted another committee to reconsider the issue after 1563 candidates who appeared for the exam sent their objections and approached the courts.

The Court further said, " The subsequent committee held meetings on 10th, 11th and 12th June of 2024 and after deliberations and recommendations which have been placed before us."

The Court also ordered, "The retest will be notified today itself, and be likely to be held on 25th of June, 2024 and the results of the same would be declared on 30th June, 2024, so that the counselling which is likely to start on 6th of July, 2024, would not be affected. Upon such submissions made by Counsel of Union of India and NTA...Advocate Balaji Yelamanjula the counsel for the Petitioner submits that the decision taken is a fair decision and he has no further grievance with regards to the grace/compensatory marks issued."

Advocate J Sai Deepak submitted that he is narrowly satisfied with the decision as he has raised various other issues in the Petition.

Accordingly, the Court disposed of the petition challenging the compensatory marks, issued notice in other petitions seeking directions as regards the result/paper leak of the NEET-UG 2024, sought a response from the NTA as regards pending petitions and tagged the other two matters with other pending petitions listed on July 8, 2024.

A Public Interest Litigation Petition was filed by a famous educationist Alakh Pandey alias Physics Wallah, through AOR Aslam Ahmed Jamal and Singhania & Co., seeking directions to constitute an Expert Committee under the supervision of the Supreme Court to enquire into the examination process and results of NEET (UG) 2024.

His petition stated, "That on 04.06.2024 NTA released the results of NEET, 2024, wherein several opacities have arisen, especially around the awarding of grace marks to some 1563 candidates. As such, with the commencement of NEET counselling around the corner, it is imperative that immediate steps need to be taken to address these concerns before the commencement of NEET counselling. Respondent No.1 being the apex body for conducting the NEET examinations is duty bound to act in fair, transparent and legal manner and it is completely preposterous that respondent No.1, instead of coming out and addressing the concerns of lakhs of students by disclosing all information and data, is evading the same creating more anxiety and suspicion amongst the public at large."

The Petition also stated that an FIR under Section 407, 408, 409, 120-B of the India Penal Code, 1860 has already been registered in the State of Bihar regarding the NEET-UG Paper leak and the Economic Offences Unit of Bihar Police had already constituted 8 members SIT to investigate the same, and 16 arrests had already taken place so far.

The Petition said that in the clarification issued on June 6, 2024, as per the NTA time loss had occurred in a few centres in the mentioned 4 States, however, 6 students got 720 marks from one centre alone with their sequence numbers being the same, which on the face of it, appears to be patently erroneous and deserves clarification and transparency.

Another petition which was listed today was filed by one Abdullah Mohammed Faiz and another, who are members of an Organization working for the assistance and benefit of the students seeking inter alia recall of the result declared, re-examination of NEET-UG, 2024 and formation of Special Investigation Team for expeditious and thorough investigation of the malpractices and fraud involved in the NEET examination.

The Petition, filed through AOR Shwetank Sailakwal, said, "The Results were declared 05.06.2024 wherein 67 Students received full marks i.e. 720 out of 720 out of which 8 students were from same centre which in itself creates 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. That there has no defined logic for the grace marks given to the students as well as no list has been shared as per given grace marks to students. The reason for awarding the grace marks is wastage of time, however, the same was never disclosed in the information bulletin before the exam."

It further stated that the exam in itself started with controversy as numerous candidates reported technical issues, such as computer malfunctions and internet connectivity problems, which disrupted their exam experience, therefore, these issues created an uneven playing field, impacting the performance of many students.

Recently, the Supreme Court had also issued notice in the petition seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG, 2024 after the alleged paper leak and irregular results.

The Supreme Court in the previous petition had issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) raising the alarming issue of the leakage of the NEET UG 2024 exam paper and the ensuing maladministration in states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, etc. The PIL had asserted that these incidents have unfairly disadvantaged deserving candidates, infringing upon their fundamental right to equality and equal opportunities enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. This Petition is now listed on July 8, 2024.

Recently, the Calcutta High Court had also initiated action on a PIL alleging irregularities in the NEET (UG) 2024 examination. The petitioner raised concerns regarding the scoring system and argued that it would be improbable for candidates to achieve scores of 718 or 719 as per the established marking criteria.

Accordingly, the matters are now listed on July 8, 2024.

Cause Titles: Jaripiti Kartheek v. National Testing Agency (W.P.(C) No. 366/2024), Alakh Pandey v. National Testing Agency (W.P.(C) No. 368/2024) and Abdullah Mohammed Faiz v. National Testing Agency (W.P.(C) No. 369/2024).

Appearances:

Petitioner: Advocates J Sai Deepak, Y. Balaji, AOR Chand Qureshi, Chirag Sharma, Vijay Kumar Rohit Jain, Aslam Ahmed Jamal, Kheyali Singh, Shabiesta Nabi, Abhishek Dwivedi and Rahat Khan Afridi.

Respondents: SG Tushar Mehta, Senior Advocate Naresh Kaushik, AOR Vardhman Kaushik, Advocates Kanu Aggarwal, Nishant Gautam, Dhruv Joshi, Anand Singh and Mayank Sharma.

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