NEET-UG: SC asks IIT Delhi to set up expert team for physics question

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi to set up a team of three experts to check a particular physics question asked in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 examination.

This comes after the top court took note of the submissions from some aspirants that a physics question on ‘atoms and its characteristics’ had two correct answers and a set of examinees, who gave one particular answer out of the two correct ones, were awarded four marks. The petitioners say that there is ambiguity in the correctness of the two answers.

The petitioners contended before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud that this would have a significant impact on the final merit list of successful candidates.

The expert team has been asked to submit a report on the correct answer by Tuesday noon.

Referring to the physics question, the bench said, “As indicated in the question as framed, of which students had to select one option as their answer. In order to resolve the issue as regards the correct answer, we are of the considered view that an expert opinion should be sought from IIT Delhi.”

The bench will resume hearing the pleas related to the medical entrance exam on Tuesday.

The bench also asked the petitioners, who are seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024, to show there was a ‘systemic failure’ in conducting the examination. It asked them to provide data to establish that the question paper leak was ‘widespread’ and across the country.

The top court also questioned the grant of grace marks and grace time to certain students at examination centres in Haryana's Jhajjar.

The bench asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to give it a note on grant of grace marks and time to certain students in Jhajjar and other places where ‘wrong’ question papers were distributed.

The apex court’s directions come amid the controversy surrounding the pan-Indian medical entrance examination following allegations of malpractices, mass question paper leaks, and cheating.

The bench is currently hearing more than 40 pleas, including those seeking cancellation, re-test and a court-monitored probe into the allegations of large-scale malpractices and those filed by the NTA seeking transfer of cases pending against it in various high courts over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the examination to the Supreme Court.