NEW DELHI: A day ahead of the hearing in the NEET-UG case in the Supreme Court, the Centre and the National Testing Agency, which conducted the test, filed their affidavits on Wednesday opposing demand for a retest.
Citing an exhaustive data analysis of the results by IIT Madras, it said no local set of candidates benefitted, leading to abnormal scores in the exam. “The marks follow a bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality,” the IIT, Madras report signed by its director V Kamakoti read.
As for the increase in marks, they were in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across cities and centres, and is attributed to 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice, the IIT report said.
The NTA’s affidavit described as fake a video on Telegram on the NEET-UG paper leak.
Going forward, the Centre assured that candidates would be chucked — during counselling or thereafter — if they are found to be beneficiaries of malpractice. Steps would also be taken to restore the sanctity of the NEET, it said.
“The Government is committed to ensure the sanctity of examinations and protect the interest of students. To ensure transparency, fairness, and credibility in public examination, Parliament has enacted Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 on February 12, and an Act was brought into effect on June 21,” the Centre said.
“If an exercise is to be conducted by NTA and by the Union Government so as to identify any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage, a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on the status of the counselling,” it added.