No 'mass malpractice' in NEET-UG: Centre tells SC; Kottayam third best performing city: IIT report

Even as the CBI has made arrests from at least five states in connection with the NEET-UG paper leak, the Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court in an affidavit that there was no 'mass malpractice' in the examination. The Centre has cited an 'exhaustive and elaborate technical evaluation of data' carried out by IIT, Madras, in its affidavit.

According to the Centre, the IIT study took into account parameters such as marks distribution, city-wise and centre-wise rank distribution and candidates spread over marks range.

To date, 11 arrests have been made by the CBI, including eight from Bihar. The agency that is probing the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam has registered six FIRs in Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Counselling this month
Meanwhile, the Centre has told the apex court that the counselling process for NEET 2024-25 will be held in four rounds beginning the third week of July. It has added that the "beneficiaries of malpractice will be barred" from counselling.

NEET is conducted by the National Testing Agency for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and related courses in government and private institutions. More than 23 lakh candidates wrote the NEET-UG exam this year, on May 5, at 4,750 centres in 571 cities and 14 places abroad.

Kottayam only behind two Rajasthan cities
The IIT Madras report has found that Kottayam in central Kerala was the third best city in the country with regards to the city-wise spread of top rank holders (top 1000) behind Sikar and Kota in Rajasthan. Sikar, which had 27 people in top-1000 in 2023 reported 55 top rankholders this year. Kota had 35, an increase of 22 from last year. Kottayam, which had 14 rankholders in top-1000 now has 25. "This is attributed to these places having many coaching classes, which could be the reason for this increase," the IIT report said.