The Union Government, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on 10 July, denied any large scale malpractice in the 2024 NEET (UG) Exam.
The Centre based its claim on an "exhaustive technical evaluation of data pertaining to the NEET (UG) exam" conducted by experts at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.
As per the affidavit, seen by The Quint, this study was based on "parameters like marks distribution, city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution, and candidates spread over marks range."
For context, the National Eligibility Cum Entrance (NEET) exam 2024, held on 5 May, was marred by accusations of malpractice including an alleged paper leak and dubious marking methods by the National Testing Agency (NTA). This triggered widespread protests across India.
On 8 July, while hearing a batch of petitions seeking re-examination, the Supreme Court had asked the centre to submit a report on the extent of the paper leak and if it was possible to identify the beneficiaries of the fraud from others. The top court also observed that a re-examination will become necessary if the "sanctity of the entire exam was compromised."
Here are the detailed findings of the IIT Madras report:
Marks Obtained Vs Number of Candidates
In their report, the IIT Madras team submitted that when they plotted a graph of marks obtained against the number of candidates, they got a bell-shaped curve.
These findings are consistent with most large-scale examinations. For instance, out of the total students who appeared for the exam 19,21,000 students scored between the bracket of 40-60 marks (out of 720). As per the study, there was a consistent fall in the number of candidates who scored marks in higher brackets.
"Similar analysis was carried out by the NTA for every city and the results followed the same distribution. This was verified by the IIT Madras team. It strengthens our view that there are no major abnormalities," the report quoted in the affidavit stated.
City-Wise Top Ranker Analysis
A city-wise top ranker analysis conducted for the top 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 60,000 ranks revealed that the maximum number of candidates in the top 100 ranks were from Bengaluru, Lucknow, Kota, Namakkal, and Patna (in that order). Of these Patna, where the CBI is investigating the alleged paper leak, has two candidates in top 100. This number was one in 2023.
It is, however, unclear if the number of candidates indicated against a particular city are those who appeared for exam in the said city or are residents of the city who might have appeared for the exam in another city of choice.
Interestingly, in the number of candidates in top 500 ranks from Patna, went down from five in 2023 to four in 2024. In the top 1,000 ranks, Patna had 14 candidates in 2023 which came down to 12 candidates in 2024.
Similar trends were seen in the analyses for top 5,000 and 60,000 candidate ranks.
These trends also point to an advantage for coaching cities such as Sikar, Kota, and Patna in the final results.
"The above analysis clearly shows that there is no significant spike in the number of toppers in a given city, and importantly, in almost all the tables presented above, Patna shows a negative trend," the report in the affidavit stated.
Centre Wise Rank Analysis
As per the study, a centre-wise rank analysis showed that in both 2023 and 2024, the maximum number of candidates in top 100 ranks from any centre across the country were two.
It argues that if there was any localised malpractice, this number would have been much higher.
An analysis of the top 500 ranks showed that in 2024, the highest number of students from any centre in this bracket were five from a centre in Punjab's Bathinda. This number in 2023 was six from a centre in Gujarat's Rajkot.
Similar analysis was done for the top 1,000, 5,000, and 60,000 ranks.
In 2024, while the highest number of candidates in the top 1,000 ranks from one particular exam centre was six from a centre in Ahmedabad, in 2023, this number was 11 from a centre in Rajkot.
Following similar trends, an analysis of top 5,000 ranks also showed that the maximum number of candidates from any centre to be in this bracket was 29 from a centre in Rajkot. In 2023, this number was 37.
Year Wise Marks Obtained
The report in the affidavit stated that the number of candidates who attained marks between 700-720 went up from 99 in 2022 to 2,321 in 2024. Similar spike was seen in candidates who scored between 650-699 (4,582 in 2022 to 27,885 in 2024).
This spike was attributed to a reduction in syllabus. "The increase may be attributed to 25 percent reduction in syllabus. The NEET syllabus committee has reduced the syllabus of physics, chemistry, and biology b 25 percent, removing some of the complex section," the Centre claimed in its affidavit.
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