‘NEET Exam Irregularities Limited to Centres in Patna, Godhra’: NTA Informs SC

New Delhi: National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday filed an affidavit in Supreme Court in the matter pertaining to the irregularities in the NEET UG Exam. The Examination conducting body informed the apex court that irregularities were limited to some centers in Bihar’s Patna and Godhra in Gujarat.  

“The irregularities in the NEET exam cited in the petition are limited only to some centers in Patna, Godhra. At other places, the wrong methods used by some students to pass the exam are very few incidents in themselves and have no connection with the other incidents mentioned in the petition,” NTA in its affidavit mentioned.

No Impact on Sanctity of Exam: NTA

NTA further mentioned that it made an assessment of the impact in the overall examination after knowing about the malpractice by individuals at Godhra and few centers at Patna. It said that the alleged malpractices have not impacted the sanctity of the exam and has not resulted in any undue benefit. 

“The NTA, having come to know about the malpractice by individuals at Godhra and few centers at Patna, has made an assessment of the performance of all the appeared candidates at the concerned centers to come to the conclusion as to whether any tangible impact of the malpractice at that centers has taken place so as to have wide spread ramifications of impactable magnitude,” the affidavit read.

“The data analysis of the performance so done by the NTA succinctly indicates that the alleged malpractices have not, either impacted the sanctity of the entire exam or resulted in any undue benefit to the students appearing at the centers in Godhra and Patna," it added.

NEET UG was Compromised: SC 

Earlier, The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) and Centre to file their affidavits with all the details and sought a status report from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on July 10 in the NEET UG exam.

The Supreme Court said that there is no doubt that the NEET-UG held on May 5 was compromised by a question paper leak and asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to apprise it about the steps taken to identify the candidates who benefited from the paper leak.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also asked the NTA to inform them about the steps taken by it to identify the centres/cities where leaks of paper took place and the modalities followed to identify beneficiaries of the leak and how the leak was disseminated.

The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and to conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held.

NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, is the pathway for admissions into MBBS, BDS and AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions across the country. The NEET-UG, 2024 was held across 4,750 centres on May 5 and around 24 lakh candidates appeared in it.