No mass malpractice in NEET-UG, counselling from July 3rd week: Centre to SC

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court there was neither any indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024.

It said the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT Madras and as per the findings given by the experts, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality.

In an additional affidavit filed in the apex court, the Centre said for 2024-25, the counselling process for undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the prestigious test, also filed a separate additional affidavit in the top court and said it has carried out an analysis of distribution of marks in NEET-UG 2024 at the national, state, city and centre level.

"This analysis indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," the NTA said in its affidavit, which also gave details about the system in place for ensuring confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud is scheduled to hear on Thursday a batch of pleas related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam NEET-UG 2024, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh.

While hearing the matter on July 8, the apex court had observed that sanctity of NEET-UG 2024 has 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 result 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 centers, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice," it said. Regarding counselling, the Centre said for 2024-25, the counselling process will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

"For any candidate, if it is found that he/she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards," it said.

The Centre said in respect of steps which are required to be taken in future to ensure that exam process is made more robust and insulant to any kind of malpractice, it has established a high-level committee of experts to recommend effective measures for the conduct of transparent, smooth and fair examinations by the NTA.

The NEET-UG 2024 was taken up on May 5 by 23.33 lakh students at 4,750 centres in 571 cities, including in 14 cities overseas.

The Centre and the NTA, in their earlier affidavits filed in the apex court, had said that scrapping the exam would be "counterproductive" and "seriously jeopardise" lakhs of honest candidates in the absence of any proof of large-scale breach of confidentiality.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country.