NEET-UG results’ analysis shows no mass malpractice: Govt to SC
New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday assured the Supreme Court that there was no evidence of widespread malpractice or localised advantage leading to abnormal scores in the NEET-UG 2024 results. This statement was based on an extensive data analysis conducted by IIT Madras and experts, which indicated that the marks distribution followed a typical bell curve, suggesting normalcy in the examination results.
An additional affidavit filed in the apex court by the Centre mentioned that the counselling process for undergraduate seats for the 2024-25 academic year would begin in the third week of July and would be conducted in four rounds.
The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing of several petitions demanding the cancellation, re-test, and investigation into alleged malpractices in the NEET-UG 2024 until July 18. The delay was due to some parties not yet receiving responses from the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).
During a brief hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, confirmed that affidavits had been served to the counsel for the parties. Petitioners’ counsel requested an earlier listing on July 15, but Mehta stated his unavailability on that date. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, heading the bench, noted the submission of a status report by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the probe into alleged irregularities in the exam.
The NTA also filed an additional affidavit, supporting the findings of IIT Madras. Their analysis showed that the distribution of marks at the national, state, city, and centre levels was normal, with no extraneous factors influencing the scores.
The NTA detailed their stringent measures for the confidential printing, transportation, and distribution of question papers to ensure the integrity of the examination process.
Previously, on July 8, the Supreme Court observed that the sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 had been “breached.”
In its additional affidavit filed on Wednesday, the Centre said pursuant to the apex court’s direction, the Ministry of Education had made a request to the Director of IIT Madras to undertake comprehensive data analytics of the results of candidates who appeared in NEET-UG 2024.
“It is submitted that pursuant thereto an exhaustive and elaborate technical evaluation of the data pertaining to the NEET-UG 2024 examination was carried out by IIT Madras, using the parameters like marks distribution, city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution and candidates spread over marks-range, and the following findings have been given by the experts of the IIT Madras…,” it said.
The affidavit said as per findings given by IIT Madras, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.
“The analysis shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores,” it said, while quoting the findings given by the experts of IIT Madras.
The affidavit said as per findings given by the experts of IIT Madras, there is an overall increase in the marks obtained by the students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720.
“This increase is seen across the cities and centres. This is attributed to 25 per cent reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice,” it said.
The Centre assured that any candidate found to have benefited from malpractice would face cancellation of their candidature at any stage of the counselling process or even afterwards. Additionally, a high-level committee has been established to recommend measures for more robust, transparent, and fair examinations by the NTA.
The NEET-UG 2024 exam was held on May 5, with 23.33 lakh students appearing at 4,750 centres across 571 cities, including 14 international cities. In earlier affidavits, the Centre and NTA argued that cancelling the exam would be “counterproductive” and detrimental to honest candidates without concrete evidence of large-scale malpractice.
NEET-UG is a crucial examination conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses in government and private institutions across India.
