In its latest affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Union government said that the data analysis conducted by IIT Madras shows that there is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefitted, leading to abnormal scores in the National Eligibility Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination held on May 5 this year.

“There is an overall increase in the marks obtained by students, specifically in the range of 550 to 720. This increase is seen across cities and centres. This is attributed to 25 per cent reduction in syllabus,” said the Union government, adding that candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating a very “less likelihood of malpractice”.

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After a comprehensive data analysis using parameters like marks distribution, city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution, and candidates spread over the marks range, experts of the IIT Madras opined “no abnormality,” the affidavit said.

The Union Education Ministry said that it is duty bound to address the concerns of the students who have appeared in the NEET exam and is making all-round efforts to devise a solution-oriented mechanism while ensuring that, on the one hand, no candidate guilty of malpractice gets any benefit and, on the other hand, 23 lakh students are not required to be burdened with a fresh test merely based upon unsupported apprehensions.

It said that the Union government has established a high-level committee of experts to recommend effective measures for the conduct of transparent, smooth, and fair examinations by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The seven-member committee is headed by K. Radhakrishnan, former ISRO Chairman, and Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Kanpur.

The Supreme Court is slated to hear on Thursday a batch of pleas alleging irregularities in conduct of the NEET-UG examination 2024.

To decide if a re-test should be ordered in its entirety, a bench presided over by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in an earlier hearing held on Monday, directed NTA to make full disclosure before the apex court regarding the nature of the paper leak, the places where the leak took place, and the lag of time between the occurrence of the leak and the conduct of the examination.

It also asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a status report indicating the status of the investigation and the material collected during the course of the investigation.