A day before the Supreme Court hears a clutch of petitions on the alleged irregularities in NEET-UG, the Centre on Wednesday submitted an affidavit in the court stating that a comprehensive analysis of the results has revealed that there was no large-scale malpractice or evidence of a local set of candidates being benefited.
The Union government also reiterated its stance that it does not intend to hold a retest of the medical entrance exam. Doing so on the basis of "unsubstantiated allegations", it said, would burden nearly 24 lakh students, who had appeared for the exam on May 5.
Importantly, the Centre has said that it intends to start the counselling process for NEET-UG, which is the final stage for admissions, from the third week of July in four phases. If any candidate is found to have benefited from any irregularity, their counselling will be cancelled in any of the phases or even after, it said.