NEET UG 2024 Results Controversy: Students Demand Action from PM and Education Ministry

The NEET UG exam, conducted on May 5, was marred by allegations of paper leaks in several states. Parents, students, and stakeholders are demanding clarifications from the NTA, questioning the legitimacy of the results.

The announcement of NEET UG 2024 results has stirred significant controversy, as 67 students were awarded All India Rank 1, with around a dozen from the same exam center. Additionally, several students scored 718 and 719 out of 720, raising questions about the integrity of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the overall exam process. Students and parents are demanding intervention from the Prime Minister and the Education Ministry to investigate these anomalies.

The NEET UG exam, conducted on May 5, was marred by allegations of paper leaks in several states. Parents, students, and stakeholders are demanding clarifications from the NTA, questioning the legitimacy of the results. Prominent voices in the student community are urging the Prime Minister and Education Ministry to ensure a fair re-conduct of the examination.

One notable critique came from Sambhav Wadhawan, who, in a series of tweets, alleged widespread issues with the NEET UG 2024 exam, from registration to result announcement. He called the exam process a scam and urged the Prime Minister and Education Minister to investigate and ensure a fair re-conduct of the examination.

Wadhawan highlighted several issues:

Registration Reopening: After initial registrations from February 9 to March 16, the NTA unexpectedly reopened registration for two days in April due to "stakeholder requests," raising suspicions.

Wadhawan questioned this decision in a tweet:"Why would you re-open the registrations when you've already done it 2 times? And that too, a whole month later?" @iamskwadhawan

Paper Leak Allegations: On exam day, reports emerged of pre-marked answer sheets being distributed and then collected back at a center in Rajasthan. Hindi medium students reportedly received English papers. The NTA responded by re-conducting the exam for 120 students and issued a public notice addressing the allegations of paper leakage circulating on social media.

Several posts on social media also circulated with question papers surfacing online before the exam concluded. The NTA addressed these issues in a public notice, clarifying that they had taken immediate action.

Coaching Institutes' Claims: Coaching institutes like Allen and Aakash initially predicted a few perfect scorers but later claimed higher numbers, which seemed to align suspiciously. Wadhawan suggested that these institutes might have had prior knowledge of the leaked papers:

"Institutes like these have a perfect idea of how many of their students are going to get a perfect score. But the sudden increase in numbers raises serious doubts." @iamskwadhawan

Timing of Results Announcement: The results were released unusually quickly and coincided with election results, which Wadhawan believes was a tactic to avoid scrutiny. He compared the timeline to the previous year, noting the unusually rapid release of the answer key and results:

"Never in the history of NTA has it ever happened that these guys have released the results and answer key so fast. This is so damn phishy even a child can understand the tactics used by NTA." @iamskwadhawan

Suspicious Scores: The presence of 67 perfect scores, along with AIR 62 to 69 having nearly identical roll numbers and originating from Haryana, suggests possible exam center malpractice. The scoring pattern, where some candidates received 718 and 719 marks, also raised doubts about the fairness and accuracy of the results:

"AIR 62 to 69 have largely similar roll numbers and most are from Haryana. This indicates they might have been sitting in the same center, possibly the same hall." @iamskwadhawan

The NTA has responded to these concerns, stating that they applied a normalization formula to account for time lost during the exam, as per a Supreme Court judgment from June 2018. This adjustment resulted in some candidates receiving scores of 718 or 719.

Despite the controversy, the NTA has officially released the NEET UG 2024 results. Candidates can check their results on the NTA NEET website at exams.nta.ac.in/NEET. The provisional answer key was released on May 29, with the objection window closing on June 1.

This year, the cutoff for general and general-PH category candidates increased from 720-137 last year to 720-164. All India Rank 1 is shared by 67 students, each scoring a 99.997129 percentile.

According to NTA data, 9,96,393 male candidates, 13,31,321 female candidates, and 17 transgender candidates appeared for the exam, with an overall attendance of 96.94%.

Shiksha tried reaching NTA to understand the issue; however, till the time of filing the news, no response was received.

Read more:

• NTA Clarifies NEET UG 2024 Exam Time Loss Compensation, Announces Results
• NEET UG 2024 Topper: Despite a severe lung condition, Divyansh scores a perfect 720