The counselling for NEET-UG has been postponed amid the alleged irregularities during the exams until further notice. The new dates have not been announced yet.
New Delhi: The counselling for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG was postponed on Saturday amid the alleged irregularities during the examination. According to official sources. the counselling has been deferred until further notice. The new dates have not been announced yet.
This announcement came even after the Supreme Court refused to stay the counselling process was scheduled to begin today, July 6. An SC bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud will hear various NEET UG 2024 pleas on July 8. Meanwhile, the exam body had released the result of the retest of the 813 (out of 1,563) candidates that was conducted on June 23.
The comes at a time when the allegations of irregularities, including of paper leak, in the NEET exam has led to massive protests across the country.
Sources said the process of issuing letters of permission to some medical colleges is still underway and new seats will be added.
“The date of counselling will be announced once the exercise gets over to ensure seats of the new colleges can be taken up in the first round itself,” news agency PTI reported citing an official source.
They said the counselling may begin later this month.
Whole NEET-UG Issue Getting Worse: Congress
Soon after the announcement was made, Congress leader lashed out the BJP-led Centre and said “the future of lakhs of our youth is simply unsafe in their hands.”
Taking to X, he wrote, “The whole NEET-UG issue is getting worse by the day. The non-biological PM and his biological Education Minister are adding further proof to their demonstrated incompetence and insensitivity. The future of lakhs of our youth is simply unsafe in their hands.”
The National Testing Agency (NTA), responsible for conducting the NEET exam, and the Union Education Ministry came under fire over the alleged large-scale malpractices ranging from question paper leak to impersonation in the test held which was held on May 5.
The Education Ministry and the exam body had filed separate affidavits opposing the pleas seeking the scrapping of controversy-ridden NEET-UG 2024 exam, a fresh test and a court-monitored investigation into the entire gamut of issues involved.
In their responses, the Centre and the NTA said the CBI, has taken over the cases registered in different states.
812 Appeared for Re-test
After massive uproar by NEET candidates and their parents over the exam results which met with significant disapproval from both parents and children, the NTA withdrew the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students and conducted a re-test on June 23 for them. Out of 1.563, only 812 candidates turned up for the re-test.
Why Were Students Awarded Grace Marks?
Students from at least six centres in Meghalaya, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Surat and Chandigarh had complained about the loss of time during the exams. At these locations, the students did not get the full 3 hours and 20 minutes to write the exam due to administrative reasons, such as the distribution of the wrong question paper, torn OMR sheets, or delay in the distribution of OMR sheets.
Several students at these centres had alleged irregularities in the exam, following which investigation was conducted by the panel formed by the NTA which found merit in students’ grievances. The probe committee chose to use the formula devised and adopted by the apex court in a 2018 judgement, to address the loss of time faced by candidates.
Thereafter, a decision was taken to give the affected students grace marks in order to compensate for loss of time during the exam because of errors and delays on the part of NTA staff and invigilators, and an incorrect question.
The results for the medical entrance examination were declared on June 4. The test was undertaken by around 24 lakh students on May 5. Soon after the exam, allegations of leakage of the NEET-UG paper surfaced. As many as 67 students got a perfect score of 720/720, unprecedented in NEET‘s history.
