‘Physics Wallah’ Founder Alakh Pandey Moves Supreme Court Against Grace Mark Awarded in NEET-UG 2024

New Delhi: Alakh Pandey, the head of EdTech firm ‘Physics Wallah’ approached the Supreme Court against alleged random award of grace marks by the National Testing Agency to over 1,500 candidates who took the NEET-UG, 2024.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on another plea seeking holding of the examination afresh on grounds of alleged question paper leak and other malpractices.

Lawyer J Sai Deepak, who appeared for Pandey, mentioned the plea for urgent listing on Tuesday before a vacation bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah. The bench asked him to approach the apex court registry with his plea.

“We represent Alakh Pandey, who has collected signatures from about 20,000 students which clearly shows that close to about 70 to 80 marks have been awarded in grace marks randomly to at least 1,500 students. We are challenging the arbitrary award of grace marks. The court has indicated that our matter will also be taken up with the other matters but the court is clear that it will not stay the counselling process at this stage,” lawyer Sai Deepak said.

The NEET (UG) 2024 examination was held by the NTA on May 5 across 4,750 centres and around 24 lakh candidates took it. The results were announced on June 4.

“So much so this clarification came about only when queries were raised as to how 718/719 marks out of total 720 marks can be awarded when the same was not technically possible as per the marking scheme,” the plea said.

The plea has sought a thorough investigation into the conduct of the examination by an independent high-powered committee.