Amidst the controversy of paper leak, grant of grace marks and irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 for admission to medical colleges across the country, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given “grace marks” for loss of time will be cancelled, with an option to take retest.

Advocate Kanu Agrawal, appearing for the NTA, told a vacation bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta that the NTA had decided to conduct a retest for students who were awarded “grace marks” due to loss of time.

Reiterating that the counselling for admission to medical colleges across the country will not be put on hold, the vacation bench said, “Counselling will go on and we will not stop it. If the exam goes then everything goes in totality, so nothing to fear.”

Giving the option of taking retest to 1,563 students, the NTA said that the scorecards of those opting for the retest would be cancelled, and only the new score from the re-examination will be considered for admission to medical colleges.

The NTA clarified that students who choose not to take the retest will retain their original scores. However, these scores will not include the grace marks awarded to them earlier due to the time lost.

The court took into record the NTA’s statement that the retest of 1,563 students would be notified today and is likely be held on June 23. Results would be declared before June 30 to ensure that counselling, scheduled to begin in July, is not affected.

The bench was told that a committee has been constituted to review the results of over 1,563 candidates who were awarded “grace marks” to compensate for the loss of time suffered while appearing for NEET-UG 2024.

“The committee has taken a decision to cancel the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given grace marks and these students will be given an option to take a retest,” the NTA said.

The vacation bench was also informed that the National Testing Agency would hold the retest for these 1,563 students on June 23 and after the announcement of the results on June 30, the counselling for admission to medical colleges would begin from July 6 onwards.

The top court was informed of this during the hearing of a batch of petitions questioning the grant of grace marks and alleging irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 for undergraduate medical admissions. The petitioners were seeking direction to the NTA to re-conduct the examination in view of these irregularities.

The NEET-UG examination, conducted by NTA, serves as a precursor to admissions into MBBS, BDS and AYUSH, and other related medical courses in government and private institutions across the country.