NEET-UG 2024: Mistakes Should Not Be Repeated In The Future, Supreme Court Says
The expert committee must come up with a mechanism to ensure rigorous checks in the exam, coupled with a SOP as to how exam should be conducted, the court said.
The Supreme Court on Friday rapped the National Testing Agency for the "flip-flops" committed by it in this year's National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Undergraduate 2024 exam.
Criticising NTA's lax policy on paper leak, distribution of wrong question papers, and awarding marks for a wrong answer, the court said that such mistakes should not be repeated in the future.
In addition, the court has expanded the remit of the expert committee formulated by the centre to look into this year's fiasco. The committee must come up with a mechanism to ensure rigorous checks in the exam, coupled with a standard operating procedure, as to how the exam should be conducted, the court said.
"Once formulated, this SOP must be adopted by the NTA," the court said. It added that stricter procedures must be recommended to verify candidates' credentials.
Further, the court remarked that the viability of real-time CCTV cameras in centers must be considered along with the development of a robust grievance redressal mechanism for students.
The committee should recommend data security protocols so all sensitive information is protected and leaks are avoided and cyber security and vulnerability audits should be conducted regularly, the court said. "Latest trends of cyber security should be followed," it said.
The Story So Far
The NEET-UG 2024 controversy came to an end last week when the top court ruled that a re-test will not be conducted for this year's exam.
The court said that there was nothing on record to show that there was a systemic breach in the exam's sanctity. In arriving at this ultimate conclusion, the court said that it has been guided by the well-settled test of whether it is possible to segregate the untainted results from the tainted ones.
While pronouncing the judgment, the top court remarked that it is mindful of the fact that directing a fresh NEET-UG test for the present year would be replete with serious consequences for over 2 million students.
This would include disruptions in admissions, the prejudicial impact on the presence of qualified medical professionals in the future and the impact on underprivileged sections. In this view, ordering a cancellation of the entire NEET-UG exam is not warranted, it said.
At the time, the court said that it would deliver its detailed judgment in the matter soon.
After the NEET-UG 2024 results were declared on June 4, widespread allegations of irregularities and demands for a re-examination echoed across the country. Over 24 lakh candidates across 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including 14 overseas venues, took the examination.
When the NTA unveiled the results, a staggering 67 students had secured the top rank, including six from the same examination centre in Haryana. This immediately led to allegations of inflation of marks.
The NTA also awarded grace marks to 1,563 students due to their lack of sufficient time to complete the test and a question that allegedly had two correct answers. The NTA came under scrutiny for this process of awarding grace marks, which followed a normalisation formula, as it did not proactively notify students of their grace marks at the time of award; instead, it acted in response to their protests.
On June 8, Subodh Kumar Singh, the director general of NTA, said that the agency had decided to form a four-person, high-powered committee to revisit the grievances faced by 1,600 candidates across six centres and allay fears in the minds of 23 lakh students. However, he claimed that the integrity of the exam was not compromised.
