NEET not so neat for students; grace marks withdrawn

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Amid a raging row over the NEET-UG examination, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday it has cancelled the grace marks given to 1,563 candidates who took the examination for admission to MBBS and other such courses.

They will have the option to either take a re-test or forgo the compensatory marks awarded to them for loss of time.

Refusing to stall the counselling for NEET-UG, 2024, scheduled to commence from July 6, the top court made it clear that the admission of successful candidates to medical colleges and other institutions will be subject to the outcome of the petitions which have sought reliefs like cancellation of the examination held on May 5 on grounds of question paper leak and other malpractices.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts the all India pre-medical entrance test. Kanu Agarwal, appearing for the Centre and the NTA, said the committee set up to look into the grievances decided on June 12 to "allay the fears of the students".

It was of the view that the grace marks be withdrawn and replaced with an option of re-test for these candidates which will be conducted on June 23.

A notification to this effect will be issued during the day. He said the committee was of the view that the award of grace marks on grounds of loss of time while taking the test resulted in a "skewed situation" as it had to be limited only to the questions that remained un-attempted.