The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that the decision to award grace marks to 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates for admission to MBBS, BDS, and other courses has been revoked. Instead, these candidates will have the option to retake the exam on June 23.

A vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta was told by the counsel for the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) that the affected students will be given the opportunity to retake the test. The court decided not to halt the ongoing counselling process for admissions.

If any of the 1,563 candidates choose not to retake the exam, their original marks, excluding the grace marks, will be used for their results. The results of the re-test will be announced on June 30, and the counselling for admission to MBBS, BDS, and other courses will commence on July 6, according to the Centre.

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The bench noted these submissions and stated that all related pleas, including one filed by Alakh Pandey, the CEO of EdTech firm Physics Wallah, regarding the issue of grace marks, will be heard on July 8. These pleas also encompass petitions calling for the cancellation of NEET-UG 2024 due to allegations of question paper leaks and other malpractices.

The NEET-UG exam, conducted by the NTA on May 5 across 4,750 centers, saw participation from around 24 lakh candidates. Although the results were initially expected to be declared on June 14, they were announced on June 4 because the evaluation process was completed ahead of schedule.

Allegations of question paper leaks and the awarding of grace marks to over 1,500 candidates have sparked protests and led to legal actions in seven high courts as well as the Supreme Court. Notably, 67 students achieved a perfect score of 720, an unprecedented occurrence in NTA’s history, with six of these students from a center in Faridabad, Haryana, raising suspicions of irregularities.

On June 10, numerous students protested in Delhi, demanding an investigation into the alleged irregularities. It has been claimed that the grace marks contributed to 67 students achieving the top rank.

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