NEET-UG 24 exam results to be published by July 20 noon, rules Supreme Court: ’Identity of candidates to be masked’

In a big ruling regarding the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, the Supreme Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 2024 exam by Saturday noon, July 20. The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions related to the controversy-ridden medical entrance exam which was held on May 5.

The NEET-UG 2024 marks will be published while “masking the identity of the candidates,” the Supreme Court said, adding that the results shall be uploaded city-wise and center-wise. The SC will hear the matter again on July 22, Monday.

“The petitioners have submitted that it would be appropriate if the results of the NEET-UG 24 exam is published on the website so as to bring about some transparency….NTA to publish the results of NEET-UG 24 exam on their website, city-wise and centre-wise masking the identity of the candidates,” the Supreme Court said dictating the order.

The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the testing agency to release the NEET-UG 2024 results by 5 pm tomorrow, July 19. On NTA's request, the Supreme Court granted time till Saturday noon to the agency to publish the results.

In an additional affidavit filed in the court, the Central government has said there has been no indication of "mass malpractice" nor a localised set of candidates benefiting from it and scoring abnormally high marks, discouraging a NEET-UG 2024 retest. The affidavit said for 2024-25, the counselling process for undergraduate seats will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July.

The NTA also made the similar assertion in its affidavit. "This analysis [of distribution of marks at the national, state and city level] indicates that the distribution of marks is quite normal and there seems to be no extraneous factor, which would influence the distribution of marks," the NTA said in its affidavit.