The National Testing Agency (NTA) released the result of the premier medical undergraduate entrance NEET-UG on 16.10.2020. Ever since the announcement, a new controversy has taken the internet with a buzz. Many students who appeared in NEET-UG have reached the National Testing Agency with claims of variation in score cards released on the result day and the one which are currently available. Some students are also claiming that their OMR answer sheet is changed/tempered. The rising number of cases claiming discrepancy has brought the scrutiny process of NTA under the radar of doubt.
The matter got more fuel when media reports claiming that a student who has 650 marks has been awarded only 329 marks surfaced in local news portals. In wake of this, The National Testing Agency issued a press release and denied any such incident. The NTA also cleared that it will entertain all genuine grievances but on the other hand it strictly warned the candidates to refrain from making any false accusation in the media. The press note from the apex examination body further adds that suitable legal action will be taken as per the laws of the land in case of manipulated and fabricated claims.
In order to get to the crux of this controversy, our team reached the concerned student. Mridul Rawat, a resident of Gangapur City in Rajasthan is making headlines. Mridul claims to score 650 marks as per the official answer key released by the National Testing Agency, but his initial and current scorecard reads only 329 marks.
Here’s what Mridul has to say on the chronology of events which occurred:
When the first official answer key was released, I was scoring 655. When the answer key was re-released, I was scoring 650. But, when the results were announced, my scorecard reflected only 329 marks. Baffled and shocked by this huge difference, I wrote a mail to NTA stating my problems, I also attached my admit card, OMR and the answer key with the mail. Going further, I also tweeted the matter, tagging the authorities. After this I got an email from neet@nta.ac.in stating that they are looking into the matter and an updated scorecard will be uploaded soon. After this, a change in scorecard was made but the marks in figures and marks in words were still showing discrepancy. After a few hours, a final updated result was published in which everything was correct. But when I rechecked the scorecard on the next day, it was again showing 329.
This is the claim being made by Mridul Rawat, he adds that he received a call claiming to be from NTA on the evening of 20th October and he was warned about legal repercussions he will have to face. The concerned student further added that:
I got a call from NTA, they were saying that they will charge me with an FIR as I have made fake claims against them. I am looking forward to move to the court as there’s no stepping back from this point.
Another student, Vasundhara Bhojane, from Amarawati has moved to the Nagpur Bench of Maharashtra High Court after getting zero out of 720 in her final results. She claims that she was expecting 600/720 marks. Bhojane, in her petition has deamnded original OMR sheet to be produced before the court and an interim stay on medical admission process.
Issuing notice to the respondents, a division bench of Justice Atul Chandurkar and Nitin Suryavanshi listed the petition for next and final hearing on October 26. Now, the National Testing Agency is bound to file a response before the aforementioned date.
Note: IHOIK don’t affirm or deny any of the claims made above. This is reported as claimed by the concerned students. ihoik.com posses a copy of the claimed e-mail conversation between two parties, but due to privacy infringement laws, we can’t attach that here. Our correspondents tried to converse with NTA authorities to know their side of the story, but the helpline number didn’t work.
A report by IHOIK education desk based on inputs from concerned students.