Today, On 7th June, A student filed a petition in the Delhi High Court, contesting the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) decision to award grace marks in the NEET UG 2024 exam. The petitioner argues that this move is arbitrary and could negatively impact thousands of students. The High Court has now requested NTA’s official stance on the matter.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court heard a plea challenging the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) decision to grant grace marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET-UG) exams for medical college admissions.
A vacation Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma heard the matter today and granted the counsel appearing for the NTA some time to obtain instructions on the issue. The Court stated that it will hear the case on Wednesday.
The writ petition, filed by a 17-year-old student named Shreyansi Thakur, argues that the NTA’s decision to award grace marks is arbitrary and is affecting thousands of students.
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The petitioner contends that the NTA’s decision to grant grace marks is unfair and is impacting the overall ranking and admission prospects of the students who did not receive the additional marks.
The High Court took cognizance of the matter and will hear the case further on the scheduled date, providing the NTA an opportunity to respond to the allegations made in the petition.
In the NEET-UG exams conducted in May, a discrepancy identified in Question No. 29 of Test Booklet Code R5, where both options 2 and 4 deemed correct. This contradicted the exam instructions, which specified that only one option could be correct for each Multiple Choice Question (MCQ).
As a result of this error, the NTA decided to award marks to all students who selected either of the supposed correct answers. This approach benefited those who guessed or selected what they believed the right answer.
The petitioner argues that the NTA’s decision unfairly discriminates against candidates who followed the instructions and chose not to answer Question No. 29, given its two correct options.
The petition asserts,
“Furthermore, the result declared by the Respondent (NTA) awards arbitrary and unjustified grace marks to several candidates without proper consideration. This action is a gross violation of the rights of candidates who are not advantaged by this arbitrariness, resulting in significant rank disparities (with differences reaching around 20,000 or more) and consequently affecting their prospects for a better future.”
Gauhar Mirza, Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, along with Suriti Chowdhary and Abiha Zaidi, represent the petitioner.
The NEET-UG exam results, released on June 4, sparked controversy when reports revealed that an unexpectedly high number of students (67 students, according to various sources) achieved perfect scores of 720 out of 720.
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It has come to light that among the students who achieved perfect scores, 44 received these scores due to an error in a physics question for which given grace marks.
A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been submitted to the Calcutta High Court, alleging irregularities in the exam’s administration.
On June 6, the Calcutta High Court requested a response from the NTA regarding the issue and scheduled the case for another hearing in two weeks. Meanwhile, the NTA has been instructed to maintain all exam-related records until further notice.