Students from across the country expressed apprehension over the results announced for National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET) for admission in medical colleges even as petitions were filed against the examination in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan high courts.
Several students such as Sonal Kumari of Bhojpur district expressed dismay over low rank for high marks they scored. “I scored 646 marks and got 32,468 rank. With same marks, last year my rank was 8055. How is this possible?” she asked.
Om Vats, 18, resident of Chandigarh, who scored 715 marks, said, “I was expecting a rank between 30 to 32 based as last year same marks would have fetched me 19th rank. But my rank has dropped to 192. Even those with a perfect score of 720 aren't securing seats in AIIMS Delhi due to only 46 general category seats. How can this happen?,” he asked.
Shreya Dubey of Bihar's Kaimur raised concern over 67 candidates scoring 720 marks. Some students such as Ishika Sharma of Panipat demanded that the results be cancelled.
Jitendra Singh Ahlawat, director of Genesis Institute in Karnal said the NEET results has disheartening for the students, as well as their parents. “I have 82 students with 650 marks and above but they are not hopeful as the cut-off might touch 655 marks this year,” he added. Arvind Goyal, a NEET trainer in Sector 37, Chandigarh, stated, “There are numerous concerns about the exam process. Even students with perfect scores are not getting into their desired colleges. The exam standard has declined over the years. Previously, 669 marks was the top score, but now it ranks at 15,000. This indicates a critical need to review how we conduct this exam.”
A NEET candidate from Jabalpur Amishi Verma against selection of the candidates from the same coaching centre. “I have been preparing for NEET for the past two years. I appeared for the NEET 2024 UG exam and received 615 marks out of 720. According to response sheet uploaded by NTA 48 hours after the exam, I was expecting to get more than 700 marks,” Verma said.
A student from Bhopal, Nishita Soni, also filed a petition and alleged, “In the result my marks have decreased by more than 40% as compared to response sheet uploaded by NTA. According to the response sheet, I was suppose to get 617 marks, but I received only 340 marks.” Another student Ayesha Faruqui said, “The result was going to be announced on June 14 but it was announced on June 4 to subside the controversy with election results. We are suspicious of major irregularities in the result and demanding high level inquiry.”
A Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Rajasthan High Court by Keshav Pareek alleging that the NTA failed to take action over alleged irregularities, arbitrariness, and malpractices in conducting NEET (UG) 2024. Pareek in his PIL said the NTA initially accepted online applications for NEET (UG) 2024 from February 9 to March 9, 2024 and for the first time in NEET's history, the NTA reopened the application portal on April 8, 2024, which raised suspicions.
The petition also claimed that the that an unprecedented 67 candidates secured the top All India Rank (AIR 1) with a perfect score of 720 out of 720 and six of the top candidates were from the same center in Haryana. Numerous students scored exceptionally high marks, such as 718 or 719, raising further concerns about the exam's integrity and marking system, the petition said.
Shikhin Goyal, a Bathinda-based student who scored 720/720 marks in NEET, however, said she scored as per expectations. “I don't see any wrongdoing in the examination as there was complete strictness at the test centres. I am trying not to get anxious after the controversy,” she said.
