• Source:JND
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NEET-UG Row: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre, the National Testing Agency (NTA), and others regarding petitions seeking the cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 and a court-monitored investigation into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and SVN Bhatti also sought responses from the parties on separate pleas filed by the NTA seeking the transfer of some pending petitions from the high courts to the apex court. The bench scheduled these pleas for a hearing on July 8.

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One of the petitions, filed by 20 students who took the medical entrance exam, sought direction from the NTA and others to conduct a fresh test. The top court, during a previous hearing on June 18, remarked that even a "0.001 per cent negligence" in conducting the examination should be thoroughly investigated.

Last week, the apex court sought responses from the Centre and the NTA regarding a plea for a CBI probe into allegations of question paper leaks and other irregularities in the NEET-UG 2024 exam. The exam took place on May 5 across 4,750 centers, with approximately 24 lakh candidates participating. The NTA is responsible for conducting the nationwide pre-medical entrance test.

The controversy surrounding NEET-UG erupted after 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720 out of 720, all sharing the coveted All India Rank (AIR) 1. This unprecedented number of perfect scorers has led to widespread discussions within the educational community.

The Centre and NTA recently informed the top court that the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students will be cancelled. Students, who were given grace marks, will be given the option to take a re-test on June 23, it said. The results of the re-test will be declared on June 30 and the counselling for admission in MBBS, BDS, and other courses will start on July 6.