NEET UG Controversy: NTA Forms Panel To Review Over 1,500 Students Awarded Grace Marks

The Ministry of Education has established a four-member panel to review the grace marks awarded to over 1,500 candidates.

Education Ministry forms panel to investigate allegations of mark inflation in NEET 2024.

New Delhi: Amid accusations of marks inflation in the NEET UG medical entrance examination 2024, the National Testing Agency, NTA said that the Education Ministry has formed a four-member panel to review grace marks given to over 1,500 students. The NTA said there weren't any problems with the examination, explaining that students scored higher because of new textbooks and extra marks for the time they lost during exams. However, political parties like the AAP and Congress wanted further investigations.

There have been calls from several quarters for a re-exam alleging that the grace marks awarded to make up for the loss of time at six exam centres have led to the inflation of marks and tampered with the chances of other candidates. These centres are from Meghalaya, Bahadurgarh in Haryana, Dantewada and Balodh in Chhattisgarh, Surat in Gujarat, and Chandigarh, as reported by news agency PTI.

The four-member panel headed by a former UPSC chairman will submit its recommendations within a week and the results of these students might be revised, NTA Director General Subodh Kumar Singh said at a press conference.

"The awarding of grace marks has not impacted the qualifying criteria of the exam and the review of results of the affected candidates will not impact the admission process, " he added.

Students complained about losing time during the examination, and 1,563 of them were given extra marks to make up for it. The new scores for these students ranged from -20 to 720 marks. Two students got scores of 718 and 719 because of these extra marks. The NTA said on May 5 that some students got the wrong exam papers in Rajasthan, but they denied any paper leaks. The next day, they said reports of leaks in the NEET UG exam were false, and they had records of every question paper.