Hearing in Supreme Court today in NEET controversy: Demand for action against the culprits under Money Laundering Act; First meeting of NTA Monitoring Committee to be held

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the NEET UG case today. The court’s vacation bench will hear the case. The petitioners have also filed an application to hand over the investigation of the irregularities in the exam to the ED. An appeal has been made to take action against the culprits under the Money Laundering Act.

On the other hand, the high level committee formed to reform NTA will hold its first meeting today. ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan is the head of this body.

On the other hand, on Sunday, June 23, the CBI registered the first FIR on the complaint of the Education Ministry regarding the irregularities in the exam. On the basis of some references received from the Ministry, an FIR was registered against unknown people under several sections including Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC.

For the investigation, CBI has formed two special teams, which will go to Patna and Godhra. The central government handed over the responsibility of the investigation to CBI on the night of 22 June. Earlier, the government had removed NTA (National Testing Agency) Director General Subodh Kumar Singh at 9 pm on Saturday night. Pradeep Singh Kharola was appointed as the new DG in his place.

750 candidates did not appear for the re-exam
Re-exam was held on Sunday for 1563 candidates who got grace marks in the NEET exam result held on May 5. The exam was scheduled between 2 pm and 5:20 pm. Out of 1563, only 813 candidates appeared for the exam. 750 candidates did not appear for the exam. An exam center was made in Chandigarh for only two candidates, both of them did not appear.

On the other hand, there were also rumours of NTA’s website being hacked. On this, an official said that their portal is completely safe. NTA had released the admit cards for the re-exam on 20 June. The result will be released by 30 June. After the revised result is released, counselling will start from 6 July. There will also be a hearing in the Supreme Court on 8 July.

The exam was held on Sunday, June 23 in a single shift from 2 pm to 5 pm. Only those students appeared in the exam who were informed about it by NTA through e-mail.

Re-exam ends in 6 cities
NEET re-exam was held in the same six cities where grace marks were given to the students due to loss of time. Re-exam is in the same six cities, but the exam centres have been changed. These six cities are-

Exam did not take place in Jhajjar center of Haryana
6 candidates scoring 720/720 were found from Jhajjar centre in Haryana. Re-examination was not conducted at this centre. According to officials from the education ministry, changes were made in the exam centres to ensure that there is no problem during the exam.

Education Ministry officials were present at the exam centers
NTA appointed observers at the test centers set up for this exam. During the exam, officials of NTA and Ministry of Education were also present at the exam centers.

NEET PG exam postponed late night
At 10 pm on Saturday, the Union Health Ministry postponed the NEET PG entrance exam. The exam was to be held on June 23. The ministry has said that this is being done as a precautionary measure. The new date of the exam will be announced soon.

The Health Ministry said, ‘Keeping in view the recent incidents of disturbances in some competitive examinations, the Ministry of Health has decided to check the strength of the preparations for the NEET-PG entrance examination. Accordingly, it has been decided to postpone the NEET-PG entrance examination to be held tomorrow i.e. 23 June 2024.’ Read full news

NTA’s DG was removed on Saturday night
The central government removed NTA (National Testing Agency) Director General Subodh Kumar Singh at 9 pm on Saturday night. Pradeep Singh Kharola has been appointed as the new DG. Kharola is the CMD of Indian Trade Promotion Organization. On May 1, 2024, he was given the additional charge of Chairman of Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

Pradeep Singh Kharola is a retired IAS officer of 1985 batch of Karnataka cadre.

A 7-member committee was formed to reform NTA
Earlier on the afternoon of 22 June, the Ministry of Education announced a 7-member high level committee to prevent irregularities and bring transparency in NTA examinations. Former Chairman of ISRO and former Director of IIT Kanpur K. Radhakrishnan will be its chief. This committee will submit its report to the Ministry of Education in 2 months.

NTA’s committee had suggested cancelling grace marks and conducting re-examination
Many candidates had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the grace marks given to 1563 candidates in the NEET exam. NTA had formed a committee to investigate this matter.

This committee held a meeting on 10, 11 and 12 June. The committee has suggested that the score cards of 1563 candidates who got grace marks should be cancelled and a re-examination should be conducted for them. At the same time, these students should also be informed of their original scores without grace marks.

Re-exam notification was released on 13 June
NTA said in the first hearing of the Supreme Court that as per the recommendations of the inquiry committee, the result of 1563 candidates who got grace marks will be cancelled and a re-examination will be conducted for them. NTA also released the notification for the re-examination on the same day.

Helpline number released for re-examination
NTA has also released helpline numbers for the candidates appearing for NEET 2024 re-exam. NTA said that if any candidate has any problem in downloading the NEET 2024 re-exam admit card, then he can call on phone number 011 – 40759000 / 011 – 69227700 or email at neet@nta.ac.in.

20 thousand students filed a petition
About 20 thousand students in different states across the country have filed petitions against the irregularities in the NEET UG 2024 examination.

In the petition filed against grace marks, it was said that NTA has not yet told what method they adopted to give grace marks to the students. At the same time, there was no mention of the provision of giving grace marks in the information bulletin issued by NTA before the exam. In such a situation, giving grace marks to some candidates is not right.

NEET exam is held for admission to undergraduate medical courses
NEET UG i.e. National Eligibility cum Entrance Test is an undergraduate national level entrance exam. NEET exam is conducted for admission in medical and dental courses. This year around 24 lakh students took this exam. Through this, admission is given in MBBS, BDS and other medical courses in India and some other countries including Russia, Ukraine.

The Supreme Court has refused to ban counseling
The Supreme Court has refused to ban NEET counseling. A student had filed a petition on Friday, June 21. He said that 773 candidates have failed without getting grace marks. The entire exam should be cancelled and conducted again. The case is to be heard on July 8, so the counseling starting from July 6 should also be extended for 2 days. On this, the Supreme Court refused to ban counseling. However, on the demand for re-examination, NTA has been asked to file a reply in 2 weeks. Earlier also, while hearing 2 separate petitions, the Supreme Court has refused to ban counseling.

Education minister first defended himself, then accepted the irregularities in NTA
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a press conference on June 20, ‘In the case of NEET, we also have to take care of the interests of lakhs of meritorious students who have passed the exam. A new committee will be formed which will give suggestions to improve NTA.’

#WATCH Delhi | Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says, “In the context of the NEET exam, we are in touch with Bihar government. We are receiving some information from Patna. Patna Police are investigating and a detailed report will be submitted by them. Following… pic.twitter.com/cNVToDaXnZ

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Why 1563 candidates got grace marks in NEET: 3 thousand students at 6 centers, 20 thousand complainants; then how did NTA decide the number of 1563

On June 13, NTA had told the Supreme Court that the marks of 1563 candidates who have been given grace marks in the result will be cancelled and they will be given the option of re-examination. The special thing is that NTA did not give any evidence to the court as to why only 1563 candidates have been given grace marks.

NTA said that it will change the result in the very first hearing of the Supreme Court. However, the question still remains as to how NTA selected 1563 candidates to give grace marks.

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