The Union government, on Thursday, June 13, informed the Supreme Court that the scorecards of 1,563 students who were awarded grace marks in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, Undergraduate (NEET UG) 2024 would be cancelled. It also submitted that these students would be informed of their actual score (without grace marks) and will be given an option to appear for a re-test. A vacation bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta were hearing a batch of three pleas challenging discrepancies surrounding NEET-UG 2024, specifically raising concerns about the NTA’s decision to award ‘grace marks’ to a segment of students on the ground of ‘loss of time’.
Advocate Kanu Agarwal, on behalf of the Union Government, submitted to the bench that the NTA took the decision to cancel grace marks to "allay the fears of the students". 1,563 students were awarded grace marks after students filed representations in High Courts in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and Chhattisgarh, claiming that they lost out on time due to various issues in their centres, including a case of wrong question papers having been distributed. The NTA, stating that a committee devised a formula that was approved by the Supreme Court in a judgement in 2018 to address this issue, awarded grace marks to the candidates from the affected centres.
Senior advocate Naresh Kaushik, appearing for the NTA, submitted that the notification regarding re-test will be notified on June 13 and will likely be held on June 23, and the results would be published before June 30 and counselling will be scheduled on July 6.