The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday announced that a re-test for all 1,563 NEET UG candidates who received grace marks due to an incorrect question will be conducted on June 23, 2024 and the results will be declared on June 30.

“Subsequent to the Supreme Court’s observations on the report of NTA’s High Powered Committee, the grace/compensatory marks awarded to all 1,563 students have been withdrawn. A re-test for these candidates will take place on June 23, 2024,” the NTA said in a release.

The NTA further said it will issue a public notice shortly and contact these 1,563 candidates via email to ensure they receive the official communication.

Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said,’ The Supreme Court has given a verdict that 1,563 students will be given the option to either reappear in the NEET exam or accept the original marks (without grace marks). I accept the verdict of the Supreme Court.”

The education minister further said, “The government has taken this issue seriously. Over 50 lakh students appear for NEET, JEE and CUET exams that are conducted by NTA. Action will be taken on the people responsible for creating problems in the examination…”

Earlier today, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the scorecards of 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking admission into medical colleges will be scrapped after they were given grace marks for a wrong question.

The decision follows allegations of widespread irregularities and unfair marking in the national medical entrance exams.

“A committee meeting was held on June 10, 11, and 12 to investigate the allegations. Based on the committee’s recommendations, the scorecards of the affected candidates will be cancelled, and a re-examination will be held for these students,” the government told the apex court.

Refusing to stall the counselling for NEET-UG, 2024, scheduled to commence on July 6, the SC made it clear that the admission of successful candidates to medical colleges and other institutions will be subject to the outcome of the petitions seeking relief on grounds of question paper leaks and other malpractices.

“Counselling will proceed as scheduled and there will be no interruption. If the exam continues, everything else will proceed as well, so there is no cause for concern,” the SC said.

Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge today launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged irregularities in the NEET saying that the future of 24 lakh students who appeared in the NEET-UG 2024 exam is at stake due to the actions of the Modi government.

The examination was held on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were expected to be declared on June 14 but were announced on June 4, apparently because the evaluation of the answer sheets got completed earlier.