The National Testing Agency (NTA) filed a separate additional affidavit in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, stating that the video showing a photo of the NEET-UG exam paper leaked on Telegram on May 4 was fake. According to the affidavit, the timestamp was manipulated to create a false impression of an early leak.
This comes as Senior Counsel Narender Hooda argued in the court during the hearing that the question papers were being circulated through the Telegram app on May 3 and 4, ahead of the exam.
However, the NTA said that the comments and discussions on social media corroborate that the images in the video were edited, and the date was intentionally modified to suggest a May 4th leak. The screenshots highlight the fabricated nature of the claims made in the video, the testing agency said.
The agency added that it has carried out an analysis of the distribution of marks at the national, state, city and centre level which indicated that it was "quite normal" and there was nothing to suggest extraneous factors influencing the distribution of marks. It also gave details about the system in place for ensuring the confidential printing of question papers, its transportation and distribution.
Bell-shaped curve
The Centre, in its affidavit, denied any mass malpractice, adding that the data analytics done by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras showed that mark distribution followed a bell-shaped curve that is seen in any large-scale exam, indicating no abnormalities.
"There is neither any indication of mass malpractice nor a localised set of candidates being benefited leading to abnormal scores," the report given by the experts' team from IIT Madras stated, which has been annexed along with the Centre's affidavit.
Why an overall increase in marks?
The Centre submitted that there is an overall increase in the marks, specifically in the range of 550 to 720 across the cities and centres. This is attributed to a 25% reduction in syllabus. In addition, candidates obtaining such high marks are spread across multiple cities and multiple centres, indicating a very low likelihood of malpractice.
Counselling
The Centre said for 2024-25, the counselling process will be conducted in four rounds starting from the third week of July. "For any candidate, if it is found that he/she has been the beneficiary of any malpractice, the candidature of such person would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards," it said.
Future steps
The Centre has underlined the steps taken to maintain the sanctity of the exam. "It is submitted that the Union of India is committed to making a robust examination process for conducting all competitive examinations in a fair and transparent manner, which is completely insulated from any kind of room, for criminally minded people, for perpetrating any kind of malpractice in the examination process such as impersonation, cheating or paper-leak. The Union of India duly appreciates that the Confidentiality of the question papers is the utmost priority in any examination and remains committed towards protecting the interests of lakhs of students who have attempted the question papers fairly and after years of hard work, without trying to obtain any illegal advantage."