The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) counselling session has been deferred until further notice. The National Testing Agency (NTA) previously told the Supreme Court that the counselling process would start on July 6, 2024. However, MCC did not share the detailed notification and schedule for NEET-UG Counselling 2024.
The NTA, which examines admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, and other related courses, and the Union Education Ministry have been at the center of media debates and protests by students and political parties over alleged large-scale malpractices ranging from question paper leak to impersonation in the test held on May 5.
The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets was completed earlier. As many as 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA’s history, with six from a center in Haryana’s Faridabad figuring in the list, raising suspicions about irregularities. At least 1,563 candidates who were awarded grace marks in NEET-UG were asked to take a re-test. However, 750 of them skipped it.
The probe of the alleged paper leak was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has so far arrested six persons, including key conspirator Aman Singh. On Friday, the Union government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing the re-conduct of the medical entrance test NEET-UG 2024. It argued that such a move would disrupt the academic calendar and is unnecessary due to the lack of widespread evidence of malpractice.
Supporting this view, the NTA,also filed an affidavit separately in the top court on the same day, contending that cancelling the exam would be “counterproductive” and will jeopardise the career prospects of meritorious students even though instances of malpractices were “minuscule”, “sporadic” and “scattered”, committed by an identifiable set of persons at identifiable places where strictest of actions are being taken.
