New Delhi:
NEET-UG exam results are to be published in their entirety – cross-referenced by city and centre – by noon Saturday, the Supreme Court told the National Testing Agency – which is under-fire over allegations of leaked question papers and violation of marking protocol – on Thursday afternoon.
The identities of the students will, however, remain masked, the court instructed the NTA.
The court also sought reports from Bihar; state police filed the first case in this matter, which has since been linked to a national ‘solver gang’ active in Jharkhand, Gujarat, Delhi, and Maharashtra.
The court’s order followed a day of intense arguments over a clutch of petitions seeking a repeat, or cancellation, of the qualifying examination for undergraduate medical courses in the country. The original exam – attended by nearly 24 lakh aspiring medical professionals – was held on May 5.
The results were published last month but students could only access their individual scores.
The order to publish followed a plea by the petitioners. They argued that making the scores public would increase public confidence in the NTA. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the exam agency, opposed the request on grounds the test results were students’ private property.
“Entire results are never published… they are the personal property of students,” Mr Mehta reasoned, but the court seemed unimpressed, stating, “We the NTA to publish marks obtained by students in NEET-UG 2024 exam, while ensuring the identity of each student is masked.”
The order to breakdown these results by city and centre was also opposed by the NTA.
The three-member bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud overruled this point too.
“…the fact is there was a leak in Patna (in Bihar) and Hazaribagh (in Jharkhand). Question papers were disseminated. We want to find out if this was confined to those centres or widespread…”
“Students are at a handicap because they do not know the results. We want the students’ identity to be masked…. but let us see, centre-wise, what was the mark pattern…” the court explained.
The court, however, was unwilling to defer counselling for selected students.
Counselling, i.e., assigning selected students to medical colleges, is expected to begin Monday.
Earlier today Mr Mehta and senior advocate Narender Hooda, appearing for the petitioners, exchanged complex arguments on the alleged paper leak, and protocol for transfer of the exam papers from printing centre to exam halls, and the IIT Madras report on distribution of marks.
The NTA told the court IIT Madras’ report showed mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve normal to any large-scale examination, and indicated no abnormality. Mr Hooda, however, argued it would be difficult to establish variances given a data set as large as all students, i.e., nearly 24 lakh.
The report also acknowledged the “overall increase in marks obtained… specifically in the range of 550 to 720 across cities and centres”, but attributed this to changes in the exam syllabus.
Earlier the court stressed it would only order a re-test if the “sanctity” of the May 5 exam was “lost on a large scale” as a result of leaked questions. The remark was an echo of observations made last week, when the court said the “sanctity” of the exam had been affected and demanded answers. The court then, however, had advised against a re-test, saying certain circumstances would argue against it.
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“You (the petitioners) have to show us the leak was systematic… it affected the entire exam… so as to warrant cancellation of the entire exam…” a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said this morning, “Because of 23 lakh students only one lakh will get admission… we cannot order re-test.”
“Second, tell us what should be the direction of the investigation in this matter.”
“If we accept your wider submission (that leaked question papers compromised the exam results) we would also like your assistance on the lines on which the investigation must happen.” The court said it was unfeasible to identify and “segregate” students who may have conspired to access questions.
