INTRODUCTION:
Doctors and nurses have proven themselves life saviours during the COVID-19 pandemic by risking their own lives to save various lives. If we delve into the current scenarios of today’s world there is the need for even more qualified Doctors and nurses. The doctor is one of the noble professions in India, to become one you have to appear in NEET. NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) is a nationwide entrance exam for admission to Undergraduate (UG) programs in the medical field like- MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, etc. conducted by NTA (National Testing Agency) annually. Earlier there was an All-India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT).
NEET 2024 was conducted on May 5, 2024, and its result was declared on June 4, 2024, 10 days earlier than the scheduled date, on the day of the Lok Sabha result declarations. As per the NEET 2024 results, 67 students scored 720 out of 720, which is shocking and never happened before. Even though one who has scored the score considered high still falls in the ranks. It was alleged that out of 67 students, 6 were from the same exam centre in Haryana. Some students even got scores of 718 and 719, which is not possible according to the marking pattern of NEET and lots of student’s OMR Sheets don’t match their answer sheet [1]. Bihar Police even arrested 13 people on charges of paper leaks and recovered paper waiting for NTA’s reply on whether the paper matches NEET. Gujarat Police caught the cheating racket of NEET UG in Godhra, Gujarat, in which three people including a teacher were accused, and transactions of more than 12 lakhs appeared. There are several allegations regarding middlemen who arranged impersonators for writing NEET in return charged 25- 30 lakhs.[2]
This results in asking questions of discrepancies and arbitrariness in the examination and result of the NEET 2024. However, NTA disregarded the claims of paper leaks, integrity, and irregularities in the results.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?
In the examination of NEET 2024:
Technical glitches: Students from many centres faced technical errors and glitches, malfunctioning of computers, connectivity issues, etc.
Wrong Question Papers: Many students received the wrong question paper during the exam after about 45 min they got the right question paper, which wasted time and energy.
In the NEET 2024 results:
67 students had ranked AIR 1 which had never happened in the history of NEET, in which 6 students belonged to the same exam centre in Haryana and there was an allegation that 26 students belonged to the same institute[3].
Some students also get scores of 718 and 719, which can’t happen as there are 200 questions out of which students have to attempt only 180, and there is (+4) for every correct answer and (-1) for each wrong answer. If a student had left 1 question or marked 1 answer wrong then would get a score of 716 or 715.
WHAT ARE STUDENTS DEMANDS:
Students are demanding CBI enquiry into this matter and asking for a Retest. There are about 60,000 MBBS seats in government colleges whose fees will lie under 10 lakhs for five years and the rest of the colleges are mostly private and will cost about 1 crore or more. Only some students are financially capable of affording such fees of 1 crore or more so, they prefer to take more no. of drop rather than admission to a private college. This year despite scoring high still falls into a lower rank. Students are demanding fairness and a system to be more transparent.
WHAT IS STAND OF NTA:
NTA denied the accusations of paper leaks and questions on integrity in the results of NEET 2024 by stating the following things[4]:
- The NEET 2024 question paper was slightly easier than the previous one.
- There is an increase in the registration of students from 20,38,596 in 2023 to 23,33,297 in 2024, which leads to a rise in high scores due to a larger no of students.
- Normalisation Policy: Many students were able to score 720/ 720 or even 718 and 719 because grace marks were awarded to them for the reason that in one question incorrect references used in an old and new edition of the Physics NCERT textbook of class 12th which renders two options correct and also compensatory marks were given to those who suffered ‘loss of time’. Almost 1563 students received grace marks.
- “Out of the 67 candidates who got 720/720 marks, 44 are on account of the revision in one Answer Key of Physics and 06 are on account of compensatory marks for loss of time.”
- NTA said that it will take action if unfair means used by a candidate will result in the cancellation of candidature or debarment in the future exam conducted by NTA and NTA will support investigations relating to impersonators.
- Tie-Braker Policy: As per this policy not every student who got AIR 1 will get admission to AIIMS. According to the Tie-Braker Policy, the actual position of a student will be calculated on their merit list. Those details will be mentioned in each student’s scorecard.
Case Law: Disha Panchal V Union of India and Ors, 2018[5].
It is widely known as the CLAT 2018 Judgement, in which a technical error faced by some students during the exam led to ‘loss of time’ so, the Grievance Redressal Committee was constituted to award compensatory marks to those students who suffered ‘loss of time’. This judgement is used by NTA in NEET (UG), 2024, in implementing the Normalisation Policy.
SUPREME COURT VERDICT:
Supreme Court said that the sanctity of the exam was affected. S.C. directed NTA to form a 4-member committee to look into this issue. On June 13, 2024, the Supreme Court vacation bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta declared the cancellation of grace marks awarded to 1563 candidates, who will be given the option to choose Retest (the exam will be reconducted on 23 June 2024 and results will be announced before 30th June 2024) or their original scores (excluding grace marks) will be considered their final score and counselling will not stop, which is scheduled on 6 July 2024. The next hearing will be scheduled on July 8, 2024.[6]
AUTHOR’S OPINION:
In my opinion, Doctors are next to God, Doctors save our lives from minor illnesses to life-threatening diseases. There are lakhs of student who dreams of becoming a doctor. Students work hard and study day and night for a year or more just for a single exam to fulfil that dream if all those allegations of cheating or arbitrariness are true then it will be a huge injustice to such students and other students will get an edge via unfair means, which is wrong. This will lead to a state of distress among students and some might even commit suicide and lose faith in doing hard work again in future by paying some hefty amount if they could get a high score then why would they prefer to study instead? Has hard work always paid off?
CONCLUSION:
This is not the first time that NTA has made a mistake, earlier in the NEET 2020 results they declared all-India topper Mridul Rawat failed later on it turned out he had topped NEET 2020 in the ST category[7]. Earlier his score was 329/ 720 but after rechecking his answer sheet his score was 650 out of 720. Not only in NEET but also in CUET and JEE mains some discrepancies related to wrong answer sheets or results can be observed. Hence, is it considered a failure of NTA? What are your views on it?
Author(s) Name: Garima Goyal (School of Law, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore)
References:
[1] DHNS, ‘NTA has failed NEET exam’, Deccan Herald (13 June 2024) <https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/editorial/nta-has-failed-neet-exam-3064376> accessed June 18, 2024.
Krishnadas Rajagopal, ‘NEET-UG Row: Supreme Court notice to National Testing Agency, Centre on pleas seeking probe into NEET 2024’, The Hindu (15 June 2024 )<https://www.thehindu.com/education/neet-ug-row-sc-issues-notice-over-ntas-plea-seeking-transfer-of-cases-from-high-courts/article68288295.ece> accessed 18 June 2024
[2] Maitri Porecha, ‘The NEET sheeters’, The Hindu (Delhi, 12 June 2024) <https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/the-neet-sheeters/article68282486.ece> accessed June 18, 2024.
[3] Porecha (n2)
[4] National Testing Agency, Notice_20240606205923.pdf (2024) <https://nta.ac.in/Download/Notice/Notice_20240606205923.pdf> accessed 10 July 2024.
Deeksha Teri, ‘How 44 are NEET UG toppers because of a wrong answer — and wrong textbook’, The Indian Express (New Delhi 11 June 2024) <https://indianexpress.com/article/education/neet-ug-results-67-all-india-rank-1-but-only-one-topper-nta-explains-9373672/> accessed 18 June 2024.
[5] Disha Panchal v Union of India and Ors WP(C) 551/2018
[6] Rajagopal (n1)
[7] WION WEB TEAM, ‘NEET ‘fails’ all India topper in exams; NTA rechecks papers, finds blunder’ (New Delhi 20 OCTOBER 2020) <https://www.wionews.com/india-news/neet-fails-all-india-topper-in-exams-nta-rechecks-papers-finds-blunder-336611> accessed 18 June 2024
