Left-affiliated student unions organised a protest near the education ministry on Monday, calling for an investigation into alleged irregularities in the NEET exam, news agency PTI reported. This comes after the National Testing Agency recently announced that the education ministry has formed a four-member panel to review the grace marks given to over 1,500 candidates in the exam.
This action was taken following allegations of an increase in marks, which resulted in 67 candidates sharing the first rank in the NEET-UG medical entrance exam.
"Students demand an independent and transparent investigation into the alleged irregularities in the NEET exam to ensure accountability," Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union vice president Avijit Ghosh said.
"We demand the ministry to establish a more reliable and secure examination system to safeguard the integrity of entrance exams," Ghosh said.
The NTA has refuted claims of any irregularities, attributing higher scores to changes in NCERT textbooks and grace marks given for time lost at exam centers. The matter has become political, with several parties questioning the credibility of the medical entrance exam. The results were announced on June 4, and since then, students have raised concerns about various issues, including irregularities, and are calling for a fresh examination.
Meanwhile, a writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the NTA's decision to grant grace marks to students in this year's NEET exam for undergraduate medical programs.
According to a report by LiveLaw, the petitioner contends that using the 'normalization formula' to grant grace marks is illegal, arbitrary, and violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. They argue that this formula shouldn't be applied because the exam is meant to directly assess subject knowledge, and using this formula assumes knowledge instead of assessing it directly.