New Delhi, 7 July

The National Testing Agency will conduct a retest for CUET-UG candidates from 15 to 19 July if any grievance raised by them about the conduct of the exam is found correct, officials said on Sunday. The NTA also announced the answer key for the undergraduate entrance exam, paving the way for the announcement of the results, albeit delayed.

"The candidates can submit their challenges for the answer key by 6pm on 9 July," a senior NTA official said. "The NTA is also addressing public grievances regarding the exam conducted for CUET-UG that were received up to June 30. If a grievance is found genuine, the NTA is committed to redoing the exam for these candidates at selected centres any day between July 15 and 19," the official added.

While the NTA officials did not comment on the grievances received by the agency, candidates claimed there was loss of time at certain exam centres and technical issues. "Challenges made by the candidates will be verified by a panel of subject experts. Based on the revised final answer key, the result will be declared," the official said.

The delay in CUET-UG results comes amid a raging row over alleged irregularities in competitive exams, including NEET and NET.

The CUET-UG exam conducted in a hybrid mode for the first time across the country was cancelled in Delhi a night before the exam, citing logistical reasons. The exam was conducted in the national capital later.

The NTA had earlier announced that the third edition of CUET-UG will be completed in seven days and there will be no normalisation of scores as all exams will be conducted in a single shift. For 15 subjects, the tests were in pen-paper mode and for the other 48 subjects, the exam was held in computer-based mode.

Over 13.4 lakh candidates registered for the common entrance test for admission to undergraduate courses in 261 central, state, deemed and private universities this year.

In the first edition of the exam in 2022, the test was plagued by technical glitches. Also, as a result of tests for a subject being conducted over multiple shifts, the scores had to be normalised during the announcement of results.

In the line of fire over alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET and the PhD entrance NET, the Centre removed NTA Director General Subodh Singh last week and notified a high-level panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation chief R Radhakrishnan to ensure transparent, smooth and fair conduct of examinations through the NTA.

While the NEET is under the scanner over several irregularities, including an alleged paper leak, the UGC-NET was cancelled as the education ministry received inputs that the integrity of the exam was compromised. Both matters are being probed by the CBI.