On Monday, the court had sought to know whether it would be feasible to use data analytics to identify suspect cases and segregate tainted students from untainted ones.
Data analytics of the NEET-UG 2024 results by IIT-Madras found “no abnormality” and show “that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores”, the Centre told the Supreme Court Wednesday.
On Monday, the court had sought to know whether it would be feasible to use data analytics to identify suspect cases and segregate tainted students from untainted ones.
NEET 2024 SC Hearing Live UpdatesResponding to this, the Centre, in its affidavit, said the Department of Higher Education had requested the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras to undertake the exercise. “IIT-Madras was also requested to ascertain through data analytics, if there are any suspected cases who could have indulged in wrongdoing and other red flags which indicate any aberration in the spread of top performers/ candidates. A set of parameters, which shall form the basis of the analytics, was also requested to be devised,” the Centre said.
“An exhaustive and elaborate technical evaluation of the data pertaining to the NEET-UG 2024 examination was carried out by IIT-Madras, using parameters like marks distribution, city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution and candidates spread over marks range,” it said.
The analysis found that “the marks distribution follows the bell-shaped curve that is witnessed in any largescale examination, indicating no abnormality”, the Centre said.
“City-wise and centre-wise analysis was done for two years (2023 and 2024) to find out if there are any abnormal indications. The analysis is carried out for the top 1.4 lakh ranks, given that the total number of seats across the country is around 1.1 lakh. This analysis is granular enough to indicate any abnormality, had a large number of students gotten into high ranks (top 5%), due to malpractice or if students from a particular exam centre or city were benefitted. The analysis shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted leading to abnormal scores,” the affidavit said.
“There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across the cities and centres. This is attributed to 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating very less likelihood of malpractice,” it said.
“If an exercise is to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) and by the Union Government so as to identify any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage, a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on the status of the counselling,” it said.
The Centre said counselling will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July. “For any candidate, if it is found that he/ she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards,” it said.
In a separate affidavit, the NTA said that with regard to the “alleged question paper related incident at Patna”, the Bihar police had furnished a list of 17 candidates. “The NTA, after following due process, withheld the results of such candidates, after issuance of show cause notices,” it said. “The assessment of performance of these 17 candidates has been carried out by the NTA, which does not disclose much impact on the conduct of the exam at the said centre, and the performance of the students involved also is moderate to below average,” it added.
In Godhra, Gujarat, where allegations of wrongdoings surfaced, “a list of 30 candidates was provided by the concerned district administration and police authorities… based on which the results of the concerned candidates have also been withheld after issuance of show cause notices”, it said.
On future steps to ensure the sanctity of the exam, it said: “The options being considered is to replace the mode of conduct of examination subject to stakeholder consultation, and finalisation is conversion from pen and paper mode (OMR based) to computer-based test (CBT) mode. Further options are also being explored simultaneously so as to perfectly obviate the occurrence of any malpractices that may affect the sanctity and integrity of the exam.”
The NTA also responded to claims that the question paper was leaked over Telegram channel and said “discussions within the Telegram channel indicate that members identified the video as fake. The timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak”.
It said that on the basis of security measures put in place for the exam, “153 cases of unfair means have been reported. The cases were placed before the committee, which submitted its recommendations for appropriate actions. The committee, after due consideration and examination, recommended for the withholding of the results of 81 candidates and debarment of 54 candidates upto 3 years.”
“As on date, there are 16 FIRs which have been registered regarding NEET-UG 2024, out of which 14 FIRs have been registered in different exam cities… by the concerned exam functionaries at the behest of NTA (which excludes the FIRs registered by the local police/ state police on their own initiative, such as Bihar Police, Godhra Police, CBI, etc.),” it said.
The NTA also said the claim that 67 students scored 720 out of 720 was “fallacious and incorrect”. “Out of the 67 students, 6 scored 720 in view of the grace marks awarded and were from the Jhajjar centre where there was a loss of time. Therefore, in view of the retest dated 23.06.2024 in place of grace marks, those 6 candidates have not been able to score 720 in retest. Thus, the total number of actual candidates whose final scorecard reflects 720 marks is 61 only. Secondly, out of 61 candidates, it was only 17 candidates who were obtaining 720/720 marks based on provisional answer keys and 44 are on account of the revision in one answer key of Physics,” it said.
“These 44 candidates who had selected incorrect option and secured 715 marks earlier, due to the revision of answer key, were able to secure 720 marks. Thus, the actual candidates without revision of answer key were only 17 candidates, which is not significantly higher in number than previous years,” it said. Also, “the 17 candidates… are distributed across 16 centres located in 15 cities. Similarly, 61 candidates who scored 720/720 marks on final answer keys are distributed across 58 centres located in 41 cities across the country”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud is scheduled to hear on Thursday a batch of pleas related to the medical entrance exam, including those alleging irregularities and malpractices in the May 5 test and seeking a direction to conduct it afresh.
