NEET-UG 2024: NTA files affidavit in Supreme Court; says ’malpractices at Patna, Godhra did not impact sanctity of exam’

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in relation to the NEET-UG 2024 exam, and said that the alleged malpractices did not impact the sanctity of the entire exam, reported ANI.

The affidavit comes after the apex court on Monday asked the NTA to apprise it about the steps taken to identify the candidates who benefited from the paper leak, and file a status report and affidavit with all the details by 5 pm on July 10.

The apex court had also asked about the first incident of paper leak that took place, the manner in which the question papers leaked were disseminated, and the time duration between the occurrence of the leak and the exam on May 5.

The NTA said that the malpractices by individuals at Godhra and few centers at Patna did not impact sanctity of the entire exam

In the affidavit, the NTA stated that having come to know about the malpractice by individuals at Godhra and few centers at Patna, it 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 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, says the affidavit.

NTA further said that the performance chart of the students at the said centers reveals that the performance of the students at these centers is neither abnormally high nor significantly different from the national average of performance of the remaining centres at different places in the country.

“The data so prepared also shows that the students from the concerned center have not scored such marks which would make them eligible or entitle them for admission to the medical colleges of primary importance,” ANI quoted NTA as saying in affidavit.

On Monday, the apex court said that there was no doubt that the NEET-UG held on May 5 was compromised by a question paper leak.

A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the fact that the sanctity of the exam has been compromised is beyond doubt. “It is an admitted fact that there is a leak and the nature of the leak is something that we are determining.”

The case will be heard next on July 11.