“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”

                                                                                                        ~NELSON MANDELA

Let us create a hypothetical situation where you study hard for years, work day and night for an exam and give it all you’ve got and all you hear the very next day is that either the exam got cancelled or there is a whiffof paper leak. How would you feel?

Not a good news, right? Then just imagine how those 23 lakh students must have felt when the news relating to the alleged leak of NEET UG 2024 got on -air. But is that all we need to discuss? No, the cancellation of NEET UG 2024 was followed by the cancellation of UGC NET and postponement of CSIR NET and NEET PG. But who’s the actual culprit here? The testing agencies or persons who were involved in the paper leaks?

Let us dive deeper and go to the bottom of this controversy through this article and here’s all you need to know about NEET UG 2024 controversy.

INTRODUCTION

The National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduates) (hereafter referred to as NEET UG), is an exam that is conducted nationwide by the National Testing Agency (hereafter referred to as NTA) for admission of undergraduates in various medical programmes. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), which is now known as the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India (GOI) has established the National Testing Agency (NTA) as an independent, autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation for conducting efficient and transparent tests in order to assess the competency of candidates for admission to premier higher education institutions.[1] The NEET exam is conducted in pen and paper mode in 13 different languages.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was in charge of conducting the All India Pre-Medical Test (hereafter referred to as AIPMT) till 2012. CBSE began administering NEET-UG in 2013, replacing AIPMT. However, due to legal difficulties, NEET was temporarily replaced with AIPMT in 2014 and 2015. CBSE reinstated and administered the NEET in 2016.  NTA is in charge of conducting the NEET test since 2019. It’s an autonomous unit which is known for conducting exams in a transparent and efficient manner.  But the recent dynamics show exactly the opposite of this. Mired in muck and controversy, the NTA today faces challenges so as to exculpate itself from the allegations levelled against it. People are showing their outrage towards NTA, but what is the reason behind this? Let’s understand this through a timeline.  

NEET 2024 CONTROVERSY ALONG WITH A TIMELINE

NEET 2024 controversy was caused because of the various discrepancies during the examination, be it paper leak or giving grace marks for time compensation. However, the actions of NTA have also raised questions from the very beginning. This time, there were several openings of the registration window. Following the initial window’s closure in March, there was a one week prolongation. There was an unexplained opening in April on two separate occasions: from April 9–10 and April 11–15. Even the results were declared about ten days ahead of schedule date. Many people perceive it as a ploy in order to hide inconsistencies amid the commotion around the election result. Soon after the results were declared, it was observed that 67 students got AIR 1, six students were from the Jhajjar centre in Haryana. Their roll number sequence indicates that they were seated near each other. Grace marks were given for the first time in this year’s exam without any kind of a prior notification. However. NTA was compelled to provide an explanation only after scores that were mathematically incorrect were called into question. Moreover, even if the grace marks might explain the clustering of students in the top bracket partially, it still fails to explain the steep rise in merit: students securing marks of 650 or above were 6,803 in 2023, but it shot up to 21,724 this year, a herculean leap of 319.33 per cent .[2]

5^th May 2024 – NEET 2024

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)  was conducted by the NTA on May 5. Almost 23 Lakh students undertook the exam which is considered to be one of the biggest examination scam. It was conducted in almost 4750 centres across 571 cities including 14 cities abroad. However, there were allegations of paper leaks across various centres during the exam.

4^th June 2024-   Result declaration

Things took a worse turn on 4^th June when the results of NEET UG 2024 were announced. Following the results announcement, there was great distress amongst the students regarding the exam’s integrity, because 67 students- roughly twelve from the same exam centre scored an All India Rank 1, and several other students scored 718 and 719 out of 720 which is considered to be  incorrect according to the marking scheme. Numerous well-known voices call on the Education Ministry and the Prime Minister to retake the test fairly.  There were news related to inflation of marks as a compensation to the time loss of 1,563 students.

6^th June 2024 – NTA’s Statement

On June 6, the NTA released a statement in response to inquiries from candidates regarding the NEET UG 2024 results. It stated that certain Writ Petitions were filed by the exam candidates before the High Courts of Punjab & Haryana, Delhi, and Chhattisgarh, expressing or raising their concerns over the time loss faced by them while administering the NEET UG at some testing centres. According to the NTA, 1,563 applicants who lost time were reimbursed and had their grades adjusted in accordance with the established procedure.

10^th June 2024- Writ  filed in SC

The dispute heats up when the Supreme Court receives several petitions calling for a re examination because of purported anomalies. According to the reports, on June 10,  a NEET applicant from Andhra Pradesh filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, contesting the NTA ‘s decision to provide students with grace marks for the exam.

11^th June 2024- Cognizance by SC

The Hon’ble Supreme Court took cognizance of the matter and issued notice to the NTA and central government seeking their statements or response on this situation.

13^th June2024- Removal of grace marks

The Hon’ble Supreme Court, ordered the removal of grace marks and a re-test for those 1,536 students. These candidates will have the choice to either forfeit the compensatory marks that were awarded to them or retake the exam on June 23. However this merely addressed the tip of an iceberg. Even though students let out a sigh of relief but, it diverts the attention form some far more significant issues. One of those significant issue is the plausible news of paper leak from Patna. The main question is that whether merely a retest could allay the widespread misgivings or not?

14^th June 2024- Statement by Union Education Minister

The new Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan denies all the allegations of paper leak and gives a statement that, “There was no paper leak. No proof has been found yet…The allegations of corruption in NTA are unfounded. It is a very credible body”.[3]

19^th June 2024-  Cancellation of UGC- NET

In the further chain of events, on June 19, the Union Education Ministry ordered the cancellation of UGC-NET 2024, an exam conducted by NTA because of the reports related to the compromise in exam’s integrity. According to the statement, the ministry opted to cancel the exam and start a new examination cycle in order to maintain fairness and integrity of the examination process. This further puts up questions upon the functioning of the NTA.

20^th June 2024- Confession by a NEET applicant

According to the police reports, a candidate named Anurag Yadav, from Samastipur acknowledged the fact that, a day before the exam, he got the question paper from his uncle. He said that he was forced to memorise all the answers after receiving the question paper and answer sheet. In connection with the paper leak case, he and his uncle Sikandar Yadavendu are among the numerous people detained by the Bihar police.

21^st  June 2024- Enforcement of The  Public Examinations (prevention of unfair means) Act, 2024

The Union Government announced the enforcement of The Public Examination Act on 21^st June 2024 amidst the chaos created by the NEET 2024. This act was enacted by the Parliament on 9^th February 2024. One of the main aim of introducing this act is to provide more transparency and fair examinations.

23^rd June 2024- Re- examination of 1,563 students

On June 23, NTA conducted the re-examination for the 1,563 candidates as scheduled. However, only 813 candidates showed up for the examination.

27^th June 2024 – Arrests in relation to paper leak

Manish Kumar and Ashutosh Kumar, two Patna natives, were arrested in relation to the CBI’s investigation into the NEET-UG paper leak.

8^th July 2024- Re- NEET – an option of last resort

NTA tells SC that NEET-UG 2024 cancellation would be detrimental to the general public interest, particularly for the honest candidates. According to the CJI, Re- NEET would be an option of last resort. The Supreme Court emphasised on the need of a proper investigation before reaching any kind of final decision.

22^nd  July 2024 – Committee was formed by IIT Delhi

CJI D.Y. Chandrachud ordered IIT Delhi to form a committee to investigate into the disputed question.

23^rd  July 2024- No Re- NEET UG 2024

The Supreme Court rejects the NEET-UG 2024 exam cancellation and retest. According to CJI D. Y. Chandrachud, “There is insufficient evidence to conclude that there is any systematic breach in the NEET-UG 2024 exam result “. Passing the orders for a re test would cause substantial amount of delay in admission process which would affect the marginalized group.

THE PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS (PREVENTION OF UNFAIR MEANS) BILL, 2024

The Union Government announced the enforcement of The Public Examination Act on 21^st June 2024 amidst the chaos created by the NEET 2024 controversy. It was enacted by the Parliament on 9^th February 2024 and was ratified by the President on 12^th of February 2024. It aims to prevent the use of unfair means in public examinations and provide more transparency and fairness. It also aims to dissuade individuals, organisations, or institutions that engage in unfair practices and negatively affect public examination systems for financial or illegal gains in an effective and lawful manner.

SOME OF THE KEY PROVISIONS

This act defines Public Examination under Section 2 (k). According to this section, public examination refers to any examination that is conducted by the public examination authorities as specified in the schedule or any other such authority as the government may by rules define. [4]

The schedule provides for 7 Public examination authorities which are as follows :-

1. Union Public Service Commission(UPSC) ,
2. National Testing Agency (NTA)
3. Staff Selection Commission (SSC)
4. Railway Recruitment Board (RRBs)
5. Institute of Banking Personnel Selection
6. Ministries or Departments of the Central Government
7. Any other authority that the Central Government may notify

Section 3 of the act defines unfair means in relation to the conduct of public examination. According to this section, an unfair act includes an act or omission that is done or cause to be done by any person or a group of persons or institutions for monetary or wrongful gain. A total of 15 instances are given under Section 3of the act which are non- exhaustive in nature.  [5]

1. Leakage of question paper or answer key or any part thereof
2. Participating in the collusion with others to effect the leakage of question paper or answer key:
3.  accessing or taking possession of question paper or an Optical Mark Recognition response sheet without authority:
4.  providing solution to one or more questions by any unauthorised person during a public examination;
5. directly or indirectly assisting the candidate in any manner unauthorisedly in the public examination:
6. tampering with answer sheets including Optical Mark Recognition response sheets:
7.  altering the assessment except to correct a bona fide error without any authority
8. willful violation of norms or standards set up by the Central Government for conduct of a public examination on its own or through its agency.
9. tampering with any document necessary for short-listing of candidates or finalising the merit or rank of a candidate in a public examination;
10. deliberate violation of security measures to facilitate unfair means in conduct of a public examination;
11.  tampering with the computer network or a computer resource or a computer system;
12.  manipulation in seating arrangements, allocation of dates and shifts for the candidates to facilitate adopting unfair means in examinations;
13.  threatening the life, liberty or wrongfully restraining persons associated with the public examination authority or the service provider or any authorised agency of the Government, or obstructing the conduct of a public examination.
14.  creation of fake website to cheat or for monetary gain, and
15.  conduct of fake examination, issuance of fake admit cards or offer

Chapter III of the Act  provides Punishment for the offences

Section 9 – Cognizable offences

According to this section, all the offences done under this act shall be considered to be non bailable, cognizable and non- compoundable.[6]

Section 10 – Punishment for offences under this act

• According to this section, if any person resorts to any kind of unfair means or commits an offence under this act then he shall be punished with imprisonment of minimum 3 years which may extend upto 5 years along with a fine of maximum 10 Lakhs. In case of any default, additional punishment under the relevant section of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita,2023 will be given.
• Punishment for Service provider – Fine upto 1 Crore (maximum) along with a proportionate cost of examination shall also be recovered from him. He shall also be barred from being assigned any duty to conduct the public examination for 4 years.
• If any investigation reveals that a Director, Senior Management, or any individuals in charge of the service provider firm approved or encouraged the commission of an offence under this Act, they will face a minimum sentence of three years which may extend upto ten years, along with a fine of one crore rupees. If the fine is not paid, additional punishment  will be imposed in accordance with the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
• EXCEPTION- According to this section, if any person person proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or he took all the steps to prevent that offence from happening then he wont be liable for any punishment under this section. [7]

CONCLUSION

The chances of obtaining a medical seat in India are very less. What possibilities is a hard-working middle-class kid from a small town left with if the competition is unfair? The government should look into the matter thoroughly and use the lessons learned this year to create a strong foundation for the upcoming tests in the future. Only then can we hope to regain the trust of students who are working really hard to achieve their goals.

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[1]     National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, India, available at https://exams.nta.ac.in/NEET/ (last visited on July 23, 2024).

[2]  Editorial, “NEET 2024 controversy: Unanswered questions and flawed solutions” the hindu, Jun. 19, 2024.

[3]     Editorial, “NEET-UGC NET exam controversy: A timeline of events so far” hindustan Times, Jun. 27, 2024.

[4]     The Public Examinations (prevention of unfair means) Act,2024 (Act 1 of 2024), s. 2(k).

[5]     The Public Examinations (prevention of unfair means) Act,2024  (Act 1 of 2024), s. 3.

[6]     The Public Examinations (prevention of unfair means) Act,2024  (Act 1 of 2024), s. 9.

[7]     The Public Examinations (prevention of unfair means) Act,2024 (Act 1 of 2024), s. 10.

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Author: Diya Bisht

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