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The National Testing Agency, which conducted the NEET UG, 2024 on May 5, has told the Supreme Court that the entirety of the exam was carried out fairly and with due confidentiality without any illegal practices. 

In an affidavit filed in a writ petition by Vanshika Yadav, the agency through its director Binod Kumar Sahu said that the present case is not a case wherein the entire examination process conducted across at 4750 Centers in 571 cities (including 14 cities abroad) has suffered systematic failure, as it has not been vitiated by all pervasive factors of unfair means or paper leak etc.

"Considering the sensitivity involved in the high-stake examination like NEET (UG) 2024, verification of the candidates at the exam centers was carried out through Aadhaar authentication, with a view to curb malpractices, such as, impersonation," it said.

As part of various steps taken by the Union of India, investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into alleged malpractices in NEET (UG)2024, is underway. It is submitted that any conclusive opinion as to whether there was systematic failure or not can be made out only after a comprehensive consideration of all relevant factors, it said. 

The NTA also said that if the entire examination process is cancelled without their being any tangible factors warranting such actions, it would be highly detrimental to larger public interest involving the academic career of lakhs of students who have attempted the examination fairly without any wrong doing or even an allegation of wrong doing.

On the basis of various security measures in NEET (UG) 2024, Sixty-Three (63) cases of Unfair Means (UFM) were reported to NTA and the UFM Committee submitted its recommendations for appropriate actions. The Committee, after due consideration and examination, recommended for the withholding of the Results of 33 candidates, debarment of 22 candidates upto 3 years, and declaring the Result of 09 candidates. Examination functionaries of NEET (UG) 2024 have also registered 13 FIRs in cases of unfair means at different Examination Centres, it said.

The agency also said that the allegation that the number of students scoring high marks are only from certain centres is completely unsubstantiated. 

In this regard, the result of top 100 candidates was analysed and it has been reported that they are distributed across 95 centres located in 56 cities within 18 States/UTs of the country. This diverse distribution highlights the widespread participation and competitive spirit among students from different regions and educational backgrounds, it claimed.

The agency reiterated that the process of examination in NEET (UG) is not vitiated and the results do not deserve to be set aside as career prospects of lakhs of students who performed well on their own merits, cannot be jeopardised on account of few sporadic and scattered instances of unfair means attempted by an identifiable number of persons at identified places which are in miniscule and insignificant in the context of very large number of meritorious candidates who have performed well.

The agency asserted the instances of an alleged malpractice highlighted in the petition are confined to certain centers in two cities i.e., Patna and Godhra.

"Whereas, other individual instances of unfair means adopted by certain candidates are very few and do not have any co-relation with the malpractices which are referred to by the petitioners in the writ petition. These instances of unfair means seems to have been have been committed through impersonation, etc," it said. 

Such instances are caught by exam functionaries at the examination centers and on being reported to the headquarters, are dealt with strictly in the accordance with law Such attempts are made in every exam by few mischievous students and the NEET (UG) may not be an exception to this practice, to the extent of negligible numbers, it added.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a clutch of petitions for re-test of NEET UG, on July 8 i.e. today.

Case Title: Vanshika Yadav Vs Union of India & Ors