In a recent development, the Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it has canceled the decision to grant grace marks to 1,563 NEET-UG 2024 candidates seeking admission to MBBS, BDS, and other courses. As a result, these candidates will now have the option to appear for a re-test scheduled for June 23. This decision was conveyed to a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta by representatives from the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The court has decided not to halt the counselling process for admissions despite this development. For those candidates among the 1,563 who choose not to take the re-test, their earlier marks, without the grace marks, will be considered for determining their results.

According to the Centre, the results of the re-test will be announced on June 30, and counselling for admissions to MBBS, BDS, and other courses will commence from July 6 onwards.

In response to the arguments presented, the bench has scheduled all related petitions, including one filed by Alakh Pandey, the chief executive of EdTech firm Physics Wallah, regarding the award of grace marks, for a hearing on July 8. These petitions also seek the annulment of NEET-UG 2024 due to alleged question paper leaks and other irregularities.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has reiterated that no student will be disadvantaged due to this decision. He emphasized that there has been no evidence of a paper leak in NEET-UG. "I want to assure the students and their parents that the Government of India and NTA are committed to providing justice to them. 24 lakh students have successfully taken the NEET examination. There is no paper leak, no proof has been found yet.

A court-recommended model was adopted for around 1560 students and a panel of academicians has been formed for the same... We will accept the verdict of the Court," Pradhan added.

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