In the latest update amidst the ongoing NEET-UG 2024 controversy, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the counseling sessions, while also issuing a notice to the National Testing Agency. The decision, made by a vacation bench of the apex court, came while it heard pleas demanding a probe, cancellation, and retest of the NEET-UG 2024 exam due to allegations of question paper leaks and other malpractices. The National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) has recently come under fire, with Patna and Godhra emerging as the epicenters of the scandal. Pertinently, 13 students appeared for the imminent examination from Patna, all of whom are under the Bihar Police Scanner scanner on allegations of paper leaks. Whereas, students who appeared for the exam in Godhra are being probed for alleged manipulation of OMR sheets.
During the proceedings, Justice Nath had directed NTA to decide on the representation of the petitioner by 3 PM on Friday. The petitioner had been sending requests to the NTA and claimed he had not received any response. Notably, the petitioner had demanded exam be re-conducted, alleging that the NTA had withheld material information and that 773 candidates had failed without being given grace marks.
Anurag Yadav, one of the main accused in the NEET-UG 2024 scam, hailing from Bihar, admitted on Thursday of procuring leaked NEET-UG exam papers through his uncle, a junior engineer. Anurag’s uncle, Sikandar Prasad Yadavendu, is claimed to have a link with RJD leader Tejshawi Yadav, who was his aide. Revealing the link, Bihar Deputy CM, Vijay Kumar Sinha stated that Tejashwi’s aide had booked the room for Anurag Yadav’s uncle. Meanwhile, RJD has hit back at Bihar DY CM’s claims by releasing a photograph of another accused, Amit Anand, alongside Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha.
NTA has revealed to the Education Ministry that out of the 13 students who appeared from Patna, eight of them have scored less than 500 marks out of 720. Similarly, in Godhra, almost 98% of the students who took the exam across two centres, have also scored less than 500 marks. It must be noted here that in order to get a seat in a government medical college under the all-India quota, a score of 650-plus of 720 is considered essential.
At the heart of the controversy is that when NEET-UG 2024 results were announced on June 4, 67 candidates got the perfect score of 720 marks, while many scored 718 or 719 marks, triggering uproar among the students regarding paper leaks and other malpractices.
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