• Dr. Satyendra Kumar

The 2024 NEET controversy was caused by multiple discrepancies during the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG). As one of India’s largest exams in terms of applicant numbers, NEET-UG is the sole nationwide test for admission to undergraduate medical programs and is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

On May 5, 2024, NEET-UG faced allegations of question paper leaks. While social media posts claimed that the exam questions were leaked, the NTA denied these allegations. In Patna, Bihar, police arrested 13 people, including four examinees, who had allegedly paid 30 to 50 lakh to obtain the question paper beforehand. In Godhra, Gujarat, a raid at an exam center revealed that a teacher, who was also the deputy superintendent, instructed students not to answer questions they didn’t know, promising to fill in the answers. Five people were arrested, and it was discovered that candidates from multiple states had taken the exam at this center. The cases were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The examination results, declared on June 4, 2024, also sparked controversy due to a significant increase in the number of top rankers. Many students received scores deemed mathematically impossible, leading to complaints and legal challenges. This led to student protests demanding the cancellation of the exam and a re-examination.

On July 23, the Supreme Court of India ruled that there were no indications of an overall systemic failure, barring a few circumstances. The Court denied any large-scale leak of the NEET (UG) 2024 paper and ruled that there would be no re-examination, as there were no credible reports of widespread issues.

Introduced in 2013, succeeding the All-India Pre Medical Test, NEET-UG is the mandatory and sole examination for admission to medical courses in India. On May 5, 2024, approximately 2.4 million candidates across India took the examination.

There has been a general trend of increasing applicant numbers over the years. In the previous year, out of 2.04 million students who registered for the exam, nearly 1.14 million qualified for admission to undergraduate medical institutions. On May 5, 2024, the day of the NEET-UG examination, several social media posts alleged that the exam questions had been leaked in advance. The NTA denied these allegations but issued a public notice stating that an incorrect distribution of papers had occurred at the Girls Higher Secondary Model Vidya Mandir examination center in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan.

Some students had left the examination center despite the invigilators’ efforts to stop them. The notice emphasized that this was an “isolated incident” and that the integrity of the examination process at other centers had not been compromised.

The NTA reconducted the examination for the 120 candidates who had taken the exam at the centre where the incorrect distribution of question papers had occurred on the same day. The exam paper was allegedly leaked a day before the examination held in Patna, Bihar. On May 5, 2024, a few hours before the examination, Patna police were informed by a whistle-blower about a scandal involving the examination. The police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Sections 407, 408, 409 (criminal breach of trust), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and arrested 13 people, including four examinees.

On May 11, 2024, the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police took over the case after discovering the involvement of several organized gangs. The EOU found that some medical aspirants had paid large sums of money, ranging from 30 to 50 lakh, to brokers involved in the racket for obtaining the question paper before the examination. The arrested candidates told the police where they had obtained the question papers and confirmed that the questions in the actual NEET UG question paper were similar to the ones they had received from the broker the day before the examination.

The case was subsequently transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). In its submissions to the Supreme Court of India on July 23, 2024, the CBI reported that the leak had occurred on the morning of the examination, May 5, 2024, in contrast to the earlier investigation by the Patna Police, which had stated that the leak occurred on May 4, 2024. During the investigation, CBI had found a burnt question paper in Patna with a serial number corresponding to Oasis Public School in Hazaribagh. They traced this back to a girl examinee who had received the paper with a torn seal. The girl informed the CBI that she had noticed the torn seal but did not report it to the invigilator.

According to the CBI, the center superintendent of Oasis Public School in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand had left the back door of the store, where exam papers were stored, open. At 8:02 am, the accused (Pankaj Kumar who was also known as Aditya) had entered, opened the locker, removed the seal of a question paper, taken photos, and resealed it using a lighter.

By 9:23 am, the photos had been forwarded to a co-conspirator at a guest house in Hazaribagh. This co-conspirator had printed out the photos, and 7-8 solvers completed the Botany and Zoology papers by 10:15 am and the Physics and Chemistry papers by 10:40 am. The solved papers were then shared with another location in Hazaribagh and two centers in Patna, where some examinees were made to memorize the answers.

The CBI arrested the solvers and conspirators. The CBI identified 155 students who benefited from this breach; however, only two of these candidates scored more than 570 marks. The CBI stated that the accused had destroyed the mobile phone used to take pictures of the exam paper; however, about 18 other phones were recovered and sent for forensic analysis. The solvers were not allowed to carry their mobile phones during this exercise because the conspirators did not want to benefit those who had not paid. The solvers were MBBS students from AIIMS Patna, RIMS Ranchi and a medical college from Bharatpur. Pankaj Kumar is a 2017 batch civil engineer from NIT Jamshedpur.

On May 5, 2024, the district education department of Panchmahal district raided a NEET UG exam centre at Jai Jalaram School in Godhra, Gujarat. During the raid, they seized a list of students from a school teacher who had allegedly promised to help these students. An FIR was filed by the Godhra Police on charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating, and criminal conspiracy. The police arrested five people in connection with the alleged cheating. According to the police, the teacher, who was also the deputy superintendent of the exam centre, had instructed the candidates not to answer questions they didn’t know, assuring them that he would do needful for the same.

Congress demands SC-monitored probe into NEET examination irregularities.

The Congress on Friday demanded a high-level investigation under the Supreme Court’s supervision into “irregularities” in NEET for medical courses and accused the BJP of cheating youngsters and playing with their futures. Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge said paper leaks, rigging and corruption have become an integral part of many examinations, including the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET).

“The Modi government is directly responsible for this. For the candidates appearing in recruitment exams, then facing several irregularities, getting caught in the labyrinth of paper leaks, is playing with their futures. The BJP has cheated the youth of the country,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.

“We demand that a high-level investigation should be conducted under the supervision of the Supreme Court so that our talented students appearing in NEET and other exams get justice,” he added.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has denied any irregularities and said the changes made in National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks and grace marks for losing time at examination centres are behind the students scoring higher marks.

Shri Jairam Ramesh, the Congress General Secretary in-charge of communications, said the “scam” involving lakhs of candidates is “completely unacceptable and unforgivable”. “This is a direct gamble with the future of lakhs of candidates of the country, which should be immediately investigated at the high level under the supervision of the Supreme Court,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.

This year, there was news of a paper leak in it that was suppressed. Now, many candidates have alleged that the marks of the students have been increased. Students say that this time a record 67 candidates have secured the top rank and six of these candidates are said to be from the same examination centre,” he claimed.

The question is how did the students get cheated, who did it and why was this result deliberately declared on June 4 amid the noise of election results, whereas it was to be declared on June14?” Shri Ramesh asked.

He further said, “Several questions are being raised on the results of NEET — How did 67 toppers simultaneously get 720/720 marks? How did eight students from the same centre get 720/720 marks? Every question was worth four marks, then how did the numbers 718-719 come? 67 students getting 720 out of 720 marks in the results released after the NEET question paper was leaked raises serious suspicion.”

The NTA issued a clarification after uproar over the results, he said and added that the affected students have termed this explanation “superficial” and “unreliable”. “In such a situation, it is very important to restore the faith of students in the purity of this examination, which is possible only through a fair and transparent investigation,” Shri Ramesh said. Congress leader Smt. Priyanka Gandhi also slammed the Narendra Modi government over the alleged irregularities and called for a resolution of the students’ “legitimate complaints” through an investigation.

In a post in Hindi on X, Smt. Gandhi said, “First the NEET exam paper was leaked and now the students allege that there has been a scam in its results as well. Serious questions are being raised on six students of the same centre getting 720 out of 720 marks and many kinds of irregularities are coming to the fore.”

“Why is the government ignoring the voice of lakhs of students? Students want answers to legitimate questions related to the rigging in the NEET exam results,” the Congress General Secretary said.

Gandhi asked if it isn’t the government’s responsibility to resolve these “legitimate complaints” by conducting an investigation. There are huge irregularities” in the NEET-UG results and the government should ensure accountability. This massive scale irregularities had affected the future of around 24 lakh aspirants.

The investigation should be done under the supervision of the Supreme Court and if any discrepancy is found in the test, then it should be conducted again,” Kumar, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in-charge, told reporters.

There is no exam in the country that is free from rigging. Students have started writing on social media — ‘Once again, leakage government “Before the elections, Narendra Modi discusses exams but there is no talk of paper leaks and rigging after the polls. If such a situation continues, even the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exam will not be conducted properly in the coming days,” he said.

“There is a need to take strict action against paper leaks as the paper leak mafia is playing with the future of students. Government must take steps and mere rhetoric will not work as this is a question about the country’s future.

“The NTA is under suspicion because the paper leak matter came to light. The students got such scores in the exam which were never possible,” he said, adding that all these raise questions about credibility of NTA.

The author is an Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi