Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday said that no concrete evidence had been found yet to back up claims of a question paper leak and other irregularities in the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test.

His remarks came amid the Centre telling the Supreme Court earlier in the day that the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students in the entrance examination, which is conducted by the National Testing Agency for admission to undergraduate medical course, would be cancelled.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions alleging question paper leaks, the “arbitrary” awarding of grace marks and other irregularities in the entrance examination conducted on May 5.

On Friday, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre and the National Testing Agency on a plea seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into allegations of paper leaks and other malpractices.

“No concrete evidence of any kind of rigging, corruption or paper leak has been found so far in the NEET [National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test] exam,” Pradhan had said in a social media post on Thursday. “All the facts related to this are before the Supreme Court and are under consideration.”

Commenting on allegations of rigging made by the Congress, the minister added: “The kind of politics being done on this issue is only an attempt to spread confusion and it affects the mental peace of the students.”

The Union minister also said that the counselling process, which follows the declaration of the results of the examination, was set to start. This is the process through which authorities guide students on choosing colleges and universities.

“Making it [the examination] a subject of political hunting is not only unfair but it is like playing with the future generation. The focus of the central government is always on ensuring a bright future for the students,” he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the future of the 24 lakh students who appeared in the entrance examination was at stake “due to the actions of the [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi government”.

“A nexus of Exam Centre and Coaching Centre has been formed, where the game of ‘pay money, get paper’ is being played,” Kharge claimed. “The Modi government cannot escape its responsibility by placing the responsibility of its actions on the shoulders of the NTA [National Testing Agency].”

The results of the entrance examination were announced on June 4. Subsequently, several aspirants alleged that an inflation of marks had led to 67 candidates securing the top rank, including six from the same examination centre.

Some reports also alleged that at some centres, the question paper was leaked before the examination.

The National Testing Agency denied the allegations, saying that a revision in the answer key of the physics paper, along with compensatory marks provided for the loss of writing time, led to 67 candidates securing the top rank.

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