STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) Friday declared the final results of controversy-ridden NEET-UG entrance exam, declaring that 17 candidates have shared the top rank, down from 61 in the revised results, while thousands of others have seen their marks and rankings change significantly.
The number of qualifying candidates and the cut-off has also seen a marginal dip.
The “re-revised” results have been released three days after the Supreme Court rejected multiple petitions demanding a NEET-UG 2024 retest because of alleged paper leaks and other malpractices.
The top court had, however, asked the NTA to revise the merit list in light of a controversial physics question which had two possible answers and the correct option was suggested by a three-member expert panel set up by the SC.
It led to a complete reworking of NEET ranks and scores for all 2.3 million students. The scores of at least 4,20,000 students, including 44 of the 61 who achieved perfect 720, decreased by five points with the court invalidating the disputed marks they got for the Physics question.
However, the exact impact on their rankings is not immediately clear.
The exams was held on May 5 and the results were announced on June 4. Doubts about the sanctity of the exam arose when a total of 67 students scored a perfect 720, unprecedented in the NTA’s history.
The number of candidates sharing the top rank came down to 61 after the NTA announced the revised results on July 1 after withdrawing grace marks awarded to six candidates to make up for loss of time some centres. On Friday, the NTA declared the “re-revised result”
Along with a decrease in the number of toppers, the qualifying cutoffs and number of qualified candidates have also decreased in the the “re-revised” results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG).
Seventeen candidates have retained the perfect 720 marks and were declared the toppers, followed by six who scored 716, and 77 with 715 marks, which forms the cohort of top 100 candidates.
Forty-four out of the 67 candidates who were earlier declared toppers, when the results were originally announced on June 4, had scored full marks because of the marks awarded for that particular physics question.
The percentage of female toppers increased in the revised results from 16 per cent to 23 per cent as there are four candidates in the top 17. The percentage of female among top 100 is 22 per cent.
There are four candidates from Rajasthan, three from Maharashtra, two each from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh who are among the toppers. The other six are from Kerala, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal.
The total number of qualified candidates stands at 13,15,853, down by 415 candidates. There are 15 states/Union Territories which registered an increase in the total number of qualified candidates. These include Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, among others.
Even though the number of qualifiers decreased marginally, with over 1.65 lakh candidates, UP has the highest numbers, followed by Maharashtra (1.42 lakh) and Rajasthan (1.21 lakh). The other two states with over 85,000 qualifiers are Karnataka (88,887) and Kerala (86,713).
The revision of the results also brought down the qualifying cutoffs – for the unreserved and economically weaker section the new cutoff range is 720-162, down from 164, while for the OBC, SC, ST it is 161-127.
Category-wise the number of qualifiers decreased for unreserved, EWS, and OBC, while it increased for SC and ST.
In a major setback to unsuccessful aspirants of NEET-UG 2024, the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the pleas seeking cancellation and re-test of the controversy-ridden exam, holding that there was no evidence on record to conclude that it was “vitiated” on account of “systemic breach” of its sanctity.
The verdict came as a shot in the arm for the embattled NDA government and the National Testing Agency (NTA), which were facing strong criticism and protests, on streets and in Parliament, over alleged large-scale malpractices like question paper leak, fraud and impersonation in the prestigious test held on May 5.
The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in NEET-UG 2024 and has lodged six FIRs. The NEET-UG is conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses in government and private institutions.