A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, June 10th, contesting the National Testing Agency's (NTA) decision to award grace marks to students who took the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) for undergraduate medical courses. According to Live Law, Jaripate Kartheek, a NEET applicant from Andhra Pradesh challenged the NTA's decision to award compensatory marks to 1,536 candidates because of "loss of time"  under the article 32 of the Constitution, which says that individuals have the right to approach the Supreme Court seeking enforcement of fundamental rights recognised by the Constitution.

The petition argued that the NTA’s 'normalisation formula' to grant grace marks violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. The "normalisation formula," according to the petitioner, which awards marks based on the ascertainment to knowledge rather than assumption of knowledge and cannot be applied in this particular case because the exam's goal as it is to determine subject knowledge based on assumption of knowledge. 

The petitioner further argues that the normalisation formula is flawed because- If a candidate answers incorrectly, the formula does not apply, and if the candidate answers correctly, the marks have already been awarded.  According to the petitioner, the normalisation formula should, at most, apply to unanswered questions proportional to the time lost, given the equal mark weightage for each question. The petitioner further highlighted that since the NEET exam was conducted offline mode cannot have a means of technical delay as the question papers reach the Examination Centers well before the commencement of examination. In addition there is no standard to accurately measure the alleged loss of time, and criticised the lack of transparency, that no evaluations, reports, or CCTV footage have been provided by the NTA to justify the compensatory marks. "

The petitioner’s counsels Y Balaji and Chirag Sharma have approached the Supreme Court registry for an early listing of the matter.

Explained: The allegations of scam surrounding NEET UG 2024

Since the NTA announced the NEET results this year, the examination agency has faced significant backlash. Severe outrage was triggered after 1,536 students were awarded grace marks after approaching High Courts in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh, citing issues at their examination centres. Additionally, 67 candidates achieved a perfect score of 720/720, an unusual number for an exam which is considered as one of the most difficult competitive exams. 

Students alleged a paper leak and claimed that hundreds of marks were awarded as grace marks. However, NTA Director General Subodh Kumar Singh stated that the grace marks were awarded based on a committee-devised formula approved by the Supreme Court in 2018 and denied any claims of a paper leak. In response to the alleged scam, some aspirants have approached multiple courts including  a petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking a directive for the NTA to conduct the examination again.