New Delhi: Physics Wallah Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alakh Pandey, in an exclusive interaction with Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, speaks about the alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 exam (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Post Graduate — an ultra-competitive entrance test for undergraduate medical courses) row, the random awarding of grace marks to thousands of students in the exam, paper leak and much more.

Grace Marks Were Never Given in the History of NEET-UG, Re-Test Only Way

Speaking about the eight NEET-UG toppers from the same centre in Haryana's Jhajjar who also had the same serial number during the NEET-UG exam, Pandey told Arnab, "National Testing Agency (NTA) said that the centre had a time loss; the paper was distributed a bit late, which led to confusion and hence, grace marks were allotted. Never in the history of NEET-UG, grace marks were given."

He added, "NTA never even declared giving the grace marks. In case of time loss, either extra time is given or else a re-test is taken. There is absolutely no provision for allotting grace marks."

Watch the full interaction here:

Coaching Centres Hand-in-Glove

Highlighting the role of coaching centres in the alleged scam, Pandey said that there were a lot of ‘mafias’ around who collected money from the parents. He said such centres are called by the name of ‘setters’ in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar whereas they're known as ‘consultants’ in the South."

Pandey Calls NEET-UG Exam 'A Scam'

Calling the NEET-UG 2024 exam row a 'scam,' Pandey told Arnab, "In the year 2021, there's a score of 640 out of 720, which is a decent score and is celebrated every year. A student can get admission to a government medical college with that score. The student, with a score of 640, gets an All India Rank (AIR) of 6000, likewise, in 2022, he gets an AIR of 7000."

He added, "In 2023, the rank is 10,000 as the number of students is increasing every year but the seats aren't increasing proportionately as a bit of inflation is always there. This year the number of students has increased by 20 per cent and the actual rank, as per the 20 per cent hike comes out to be 40,000."

When Arnab asked Pandey how was it possible for 67 students to top the exam in the country by calling it 'mathematically impossible' to score 702 out of 720 (given the marking format of the exam), the latter asserted the same was possible with the NTA.

Pandey said, "Scoring 720 practically seems impossible. The NTA clarified that there was a controversial question, which had different answers in the old NCERT and the new NCERT book. This can merely give a four or five marks extra to any student."

Pandey Moves Supreme Court

Earlier in the day, Pandey moved the Supreme Court (SC) against random awarding of grace marks to at least 1,500 students in the NEET UG 2024 exams conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA). The matter is expected to be heard on June 12.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea alleging discrepancies in the NEET-PG examination conducted in 2022 for admissions to post-graduate courses in various streams of medical sciences and seeking disclosure of answer keys and answer sheets.

"These petitions are rendered infructuous due to the passage of time,” said a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah while dismissing a plea filed by a candidate named Pritish Kumar and others in 2022.

The counsel for Kumar and others said the plea has not become infructuous as two out of the six petitioners would be taking up NEET-PG on June 23 this year.

The NEET-PG examination is conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) for admissions in various PG courses after the students complete MBBS, BDS and other equivalent courses.

"The trouble is they (NBE) are not allowing us to access the answer keys, answer sheets, question papers (of NEET-PG 2022),” the lawyer said.

The bench rejected the plea saying that it cannot keep it pending “unnecessarily”.

Pritish Kumar and others had filed the plea alleging that there were mismatches in their NEET-PG 2022 scores and the NBE was not permitting re-evaluation. (with PTI inputs)