NEET retest for grace marked candidates
The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the decision to give grace marks to 1,563 candidates of NEET-UG 2024 by the National Testing Agency (NTA) has been cancelled and the students will be given an option to apply for a retest on June 23.
The Supreme Court recorded the Union government’s submission on June 13 that the score cards of 1,563 candidates granted compensatory marks in the undergraduate medical entrance examination, known as NEET-UG 2024, will stand cancelled.
The court was hearing petitions challenging the award of the grace marks to the 1,563 candidates using a “normalisation formula”, on the grounds that they were not allowed the full period of 3.2 hours to write the exam at their respective centres. The compensatory marks were awarded to these candidates on the recommendation of a committee constituted by the National Testing Agency (NTA), the body which conducts the NEET.
Appearing for the Union, advocate Kanu Agrawal submitted that this committee was of the opinion that the grant of compensatory marks to 1,563 students for loss of time had led to a skewed situation. Grace marks were limited only to unattempted questions.
Consequently, Mr. Agrawal informed the court that a re-examination would be held for the 1,563 candidates. “The results of the affected candidates who do not wish to appear for the re-examination will be declared on their actual marks without grace marks obtained by them in the examination held on May 5, 2024,” the court recorded in its order.
