Author-Ridhima, student at Panjab University Regional Centre, Ludhiana
To the point
In the modern world, nobody wants to compromise with their dreams. Everyone wants a luxurious life. Parents who didn’t get fair chance to study want their children to be successful. That’s why, competition is very tough. Expectations of parents are increasing day by day. To live upto expectations of parents, students put their heart and soul and study for day and night to score good. As we all know, there is a shortage of good colleges in the country. And every college want scholars. So cut off marks of almost every college is very high. There are a lot of exams which are conducted on national level for getting admission in colleges. Students who cracked the exam can get admission in the top colleges.
One of these exams is National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for undergraduates (NEET UG). This is an undergraduate admission test for all medical courses, dental courses and Ayush courses. This exam is introduced in 2013 and in 2016 for the very first time this exam was conducted by the agency named as National Testing Agency (NTA). This exam includes four subjects i.e., physics, chemistry, zoology and botany. There are total 200 questions (50 questions of each subject) and students have to attempt 180 questions (45 questions of each subject). For correct answer, 4 marks are granted and for wrong answer, one mark is deducted. The time for the exam is 3hours20min and maximum marks are 720. NEET exam is one of the toughest exams in India.
Abstract
Around 2.3 million students gave the exam of NEET UG in 2024. Students give their minimum one year for preparation of this exam. In 2023; 20,38,596 candidates appeared for this exam and in 2024; 23,33,297 candidates appeared. Paper leaks and misconducting exams become common over the past few years. In 2024, NEET exam got leaked. This incident is named as NEET UG exam scam. When these kind of scams takes place, a lot of students suffer. All the hardwork went in vain and all the efforts are wasted.
Last year, on Feb 9, registration for NEET UG exam was opened by NTA and candidates were granted with one month time to register. It means last date for registration was March 9. But on March 9, date was extended for one week. Then again on April 9, registration link was opened. Then from April 11 to April 15, correction window was opened. These all acts created suspicion on the integrity and sanctity of the exam. Along with this, there were several concerns and issues raised which put a question on the sanctity of this national level exam.
Use of legal jargon
Paper leaks have become so common that the Indian Express investigation has revealed that in last 5 years, there have been 41 paper leaks, that had affected the lives of 14 million job seekers.
In case of NEET exam, Patna police arrested 13 people for leaking the exam papers. They were charging Rs.3million to Rs.5million from each student for those leaked papers. A racket of ‘helping’ NEET aspirants in the exam was busted in Godhra town, hours before the students were to take the all-India test on May 5. An education consultancy owner, Parshuram Roy, who allegedly connived with a school teacher Tushar Bhatt and Arif Vohra, a BJP functionary in Godhra to help the students by charging Rs.10 lakhs each.
The Junior Doctor’s Network of the Indian Medical Association raised another issue. They stated that before the results were declared, NTA released an Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheet, which is basically a student’s answer sheet, where they have filled the answers to the MCQs. This is done so that students get a fair idea of what their score will be. But the problem arises that many students got completely different marks in their scorecards as in comparison to their answer sheets. Like the case of 21 year old Sheikh Mohammed Shoaib, there was a difference of 10 marks in the scores of OMR sheet and final results. Similarly, in the case of 18 year old Arshita, according to OMR sheet her score would be around 384 but when the final results were declared she scored just 308 marks. Despite so many problems, the result was declared 10 days in advance on the day of declaration of the results of the elections.
The proof
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is responsible for conducting this exam. There were many questions which were being asked from NTA that how a lot of students scored full marks in such a tough exam. NTA gave three reasons:
They claimed that paper was comparatively easier than previous years, that’s why so many students score full marks but according to a lot of reports, students and experts said that exam was very tough before the declaration of results.
NTA also said that there were 3,00,000 more candidates as in comparison to previous year. In 2023; there were 20,38,596 candidates and in 2024; there were 23,33,297 candidates. The increase in candidates naturally led to an increase in high scorers due to a larger pool of candidates being registered for this exam.
NTA said that there are so many toppers because 50 out of 67 toppers got grace marks, 44 were on account of the revision in one answer key of physics and 6 were on account of compensatory marks for loss of time. There was a physics question in this exam which had two correct answers because this question is in both the old and new edition of the NCERT textbook, both have different answers, so subject experts said that both options should be marked as correct.
Legal jargon
A lot of applications were filed in High courts and Supreme court. When the case was in high court, students who got grace marks referred the judgement passed by Supreme Court in 2018. The judgement quotes that the loss of examination time was ascertained and such candidates were compensated with marks based on their answering efficiency and time lost, as per the mechanism/formula established by the Hon’ble apex court, vide its judgement dates 13.06.2018 in W.P 551 of 2018.
But here the loophole is that the 2018 judgement talks about the exam of CLAT for law and the judgement was placed under the category that admission to educational institutions other than medical and engineering. It means it was clearly written that this judgement cannot be used for engineering and medical exams. People alleged that this points to corruption and that this is a scam. But still NTA refers this judgement.
After this the case has been transferred to the Supreme Court. The SC said that ‘sanctity of exam has been affected, so we need answers.’ The centre has told the SC that it will conduct a retest for such students who were given grace marks. The re-exam was conducted on June 23. The SC has decided not to stop the admissions counselling process.
Also the opposition leaders raised this issue in parliament. The central government announced constitution of a high level committee, headed by former ISRO chairman, Dr.K Radhakrishnan, to look into the functioning and fair conduct examinations by NTA. The union government also removed the NTA chief. The rules under The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 have been notified.
Conclusion
Exams play very crucial role in the lives of the student. Their goals, ambitions and dreams depends upon that one exam. And when such kind of corruption occurs in conducting competitive exam like NEET UG, its dire consequences are faced by the students. And they have to sacrifice their goals because of someone else’s greed. Every exam should be conducted in a fair manner. The scams like this put severe impact on students. The integrity and sanctity of the exams lost due to such incidents. So all exams must be conducted in a fair manner to protect the interests of the students and their parents.
FAQs
What was the impact on the candidates after knowing the scam of NEET UG exam?
The NEET UG 2024 exam had a profound impact on candidates across India. Honest students who studied hard for years felt their efforts were devalued. Confusion over re-tests, legal delays, and the future added immense psychological pressure. Many candidates began to lose faith in the fairness of the examination and selection system. Students feared losing an academic year due to potential re-examinations or cancellations. Allegations of leaked papers, impersonation, and manipulation meant undeserving candidates may have secured top ranks. Genuine rankers also came under suspicion, creating an atmosphere of doubt.
What was the view of Supreme Court in NEET UG 2024 case?
A three judge bench led by Chief Justice D.Y.Chandrachud, along with Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, refused to cancel or order a nationwide retest of NEET UG exam. The court determined the paper leak was localized, mainly affecting certain centers, but not systematic enough to taint the overall exam integrity. It held that there was no material on record to show the results were vitiated by widespread malpractice, so the exam’s fairness remained intact overall.
