Amid concerns about the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical colleges, the Supreme Court today came down heavily on the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the nationwide exam for medical college aspirants.

“If there’s even 0.001% negligence on anyone’s part, it should be e thoroughly dealt with,” the Supreme Court said.

As an agency which is conducting the examination, you must act fair. If there is a mistake, say yes, this is a mistake, and this is the action we are going to take. At least that inspires confidence in your performance,” the top court told the NTA.

The next hearing in the case will be held on July 8.

Last week, the NTA told the Supreme Court that grace marks given to 1,563 candidates in the NEET-UG exam would be scrapped and the candidates had the option of taking the exam again on June 23. The results of the re-test will be declared before June 30, the top court was told.

If any of these candidates chose to not take the re-test, their earlier score would be reinstated without the extra marks.

Results for the medical entrance examination, which was taken by 24 lakh students on May 5, were declared on June 4. Allegations of an exam paper leak soon surfaced. As many as 67 students got a perfect score of 720/720.

Grace marks were given to several students allegedly to compensate for loss of time at the exam centre.

Many student organisations have protested over the alleged NEET irregularities, including wrong question papers being distributed, Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets being torn, or delays in the distribution of the sheets.

A woman died after she reversed her car off a cliff and fell 300 feet into a gorge in Maharashtra. The incident was captured on camera by the woman’s friend who was making a video of her learning how to drive. 

In the video, 23-year-old Shweta Deepak Surwase, is seen in the driver’s seat as her friend Suraj Sanjau Mule, 25, records a video of her. The two friends had travelled from Aurangabad to Sulibhanjan Hills on Monday afternoon.

On Camera, Woman Reverses Car Off #Maharashtra Cliff, Falls 300 Feet, Dies

Read Here: https://t.co/KRKKoWvbkh pic.twitter.com/lk2L3BtZHW

— NDTV (@ndtv) June 18, 2024

Around 2 pm, Ms Surwase got into the car and began slowly reversing it, the video shows. The car is still 50 metres away from the cliff. However, as she continues backing up, the car’s speed increases and her friend warns her to slow down. “Clutch, clutch, clutch”, he shouts as the car’s engine revs. He runs to stop her but the car falls into the gorge, killing Ms Surwase.

According to witnesses, the car rolled down the 300-foot high cliff and fell into a gorge. Visuals showed the mangled remains of the vehicle in the gorge. 

The friends were visiting the Dattatreya temple in Sulibhanjan. During the rainy season, the Sulibhanhan hills are thronged by tourists who arrive in large numbers to enjoy the picturesque scenery.

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