CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: The Supreme Court will hear pleas challenging the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test – undergraduate results next week, on July 18. The apex court was scheduled to hear the case on Thursday.

The apex court heard pleas demanding a retest of NEET-UG 2024 examinations on Monday and directed the Centre and National Testing Agency to file responses on the extent of the question paper leak.

The SC had observed that a question paper leak has in fact taken place and a retest will be ordered considering the extent of the leak and if guilty are not identified. The SC also directed NTA to make full disclosure regarding the paper leak.

The Centre and NTA filed their responses on Wednesday and argued against ordering a retest. The Centre in its response ruled out any mass malpractice. It said the data analytics of results of NEET-UG 2024 was conducted by IIT-Madras and as per the findings given by the experts, the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any large-scale examination indicating no abnormality. There was also no localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores in NEET-UG 2024, the Centre said in the affidavit.

The NTA also in its affidavit said there seems to be “no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks”.

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is conducted by the NTA for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. Allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks, have led to protests in several cities and sparring between rival political parties. The National Testing Agency (NTA) filed a separate additional affidavit in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, stating that the video showing a photo of the NEET-UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake. According to the affidavit, the timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak.

This comes as Senior Counsel Narender Hooda argued in the court during the hearing that the question papers were being circulated through the Telegram app on May 3 and 4, ahead of the exam.

However, the NTA said that the comments and discussions on social media corroborate that the images in the video were edited, and the date was intentionally modified to suggest a May 4th leak. The screenshots highlight the fabricated nature of the claims made in the video, the testing agency said.

The agency added that it has carried out an analysis of the distribution of marks at the national, state, city and centre level which indicated that it was “quite normal” and there was nothing to suggest extraneous factors influencing the distribution of marks. It also gave details about the system in place for ensuring the confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.

Bell-shaped curve

The Centre, in its affidavit, denied any mass malpractice, adding that the data analytics done by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras showed that mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve that is seen in any large-scale exam, indicating no abnormalities.

“There is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefited leading to abnormal scores,” the report given by the experts’ team from IIT Madras stated, which has been annexed along with the Centre’s affidavit.

Why an overall increase in marks?

The Centre submitted that there is an overall increase in the marks, specifically in the range of 550 to 720 across the cities and centres. This is attributed to a 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating a very low likelihood of malpractice.

Counselling

The Centre said for 2024-25, the counselling process will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July. “For any candidate, if it is found that he/she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, the candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards,” it said.

Future steps

The Centre has underlined the steps taken to maintain the sanctity of the exam. “It is submitted that the Union of India is committed to making a robust examination process for conducting all competitive examinations in a fair and transparent manner, which is completely insulated from any kind of room, for criminally minded people, for perpetrating any kind of malpractice in the examination process such as impersonation, cheating or paper-leak. The Union of India duly appreciates that the Confidentiality of the question papers is the utmost priority in any examination and remains committed towards protecting the interests of lakhs of students who have attempted the question papers fairly and after years of hard work, without trying to obtain any illegal advantage.”