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 score-cards of 1563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given “grace marks” for loss of time will be cancelled, with an option to take re-test.

Appearing for the NTA, advocate Kanu Agrawal, told a vacation bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta that a decision was taken by the NTA to hold a retest for those awarded “grace marks” due to a 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 re-test to 1563 students, the NTA said that those who choose to take re-test, their present score card would be cancelled and new score, after the re-exam, will be counted for admission to medical colleges.

However, NTA said that those who choose not to take the retest, their original scores would remain but will not include the grace marks awarded to them earlier on account of the loss of time.

The Court took into record the statement of NTA that re-test of 1563 students will be notified today itself and it would likely be held on June 23 and results would be declared prior to June 30 so that counselling which is set 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 score-cards of 1563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates who were given grace marks and these students will be given an option to take a re-test,” NTA said.

The vacation bench was also informed that the National Testing Agency would hold the retest for these 1563 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 this during the hearing of a batch of petitions questioning the grant of grace marks, and irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024 for undergraduate medical admissions. The petitioners were seeking direction to the NTA to re-conduct the exam again in view of these irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2024.

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