Forty-eight per cent of students who were scheduled to retake the NEET-UG today did not turn up, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said in a statement. After a Supreme Court order, 1,563 students who were given grace marks were eligible to take the retest today, the NTA said.

Of the total, 813 (52 per cent) gave the retest and 750 skipped, shows data released by the NTA this evening. The NTA had opened seven exam centres in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Meghalaya, and Chandigarh, a Union Territory.

🔴 #JustIn | NEET-UG 2024 retest: Only 52% (813 out of 1563) students turned up for the retest today. pic.twitter.com/JZzsxmDh8c

— NDTV (@ndtv) June 23, 2024

Below is the list of how many students gave the retest, how many skipped, and the locations.

Chandigarh: 2 eligible, both absent.

Chhattisgarh: 602 eligible, 311 absent, 291 took retest.

Gujarat: 1 eligible, and the student turned up.

Haryana: 494 eligible, 207 absent, 287 took retest.

Meghalaya: 464 eligible, 230 absent, 234 took retest.

The retest was held on a day the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a first information report (FIR) in connection with alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG held on May 5. The CBI filed the case following a complaint from the Education Ministry amid protests and litigation by students for a probe into paper leak claims.

Officials said the ministry alleged in the complaint, now part of the FIR, that “certain isolated incidents” happened in a few states during the conduct of the examination. Giving top priority to the case, the CBI has formed special teams that are on their way to Godhra and Patna, where cases of question paper leaks have been filed by the police.

The CBI will take over the investigation of the cases filed by the police in Gujarat and Bihar.

Sixty-three candidates were debarred from all over the country over malpractices during the NEET-UG, the NTA said. They include 17 from Bihar, and 30 from Godhra.

The role of officials, if any, connected with the conduct of the examination and also into the entire gamut of events, and the larger conspiracy will also be under the scanner, officials said.

In a separate matter, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre, the NTA and others on various petitions, including those seeking cancellation of the NEET-UG 2024 exam and a court-monitored investigation.

The Supreme Court also halted proceedings on similar petitions in various high courts.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the Delhi High Court’s pause on his bail in a corruption case related to the liquor policy case till a petition by the Enforcement Directorate is heard.

The Central agency had challenged the bail granted to Mr Kejriwal hours before he was to leave Tihar jail. On Friday, the high court said till it heard the agency’s petition, the trial court order for bail will not take effect.

Mr Kejriwal’s lawyers have sought a hearing tomorrow.

Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on charges of money laundering. The agency has alleged that the Chief Minister got money from the liquor lobby for framing the excise policy and it was used to fund his Aam Aadmi Party’s election campaign in Goa.

He has been in jail since March 21 except for a brief interim bail granted by the Supreme Court ahead of the general election.

In its latest petition, the ED argued that the trial court’s order granting bail to Mr Kejriwal was “perverse” and had serious procedural irregularities. The court’s order was flawed, it said, since it was based on wrong information.

“On wrong facts, wrong dates, you come to a conclusion that mala fide,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, representing the ED, had said.

The High Court had sought Mr Kejriwal’s response on the matter.

Mr Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita Kejriwal said his bail order was challenged even before it was uploaded on the court’s website. “Even before the bail order was uploaded, the ED went to the high court to get it stayed. Dictatorship has crossed all limits in the country,” she said.