Less than 48 hours after the cancellation of UGC-NET, the Ministry of Education on Friday asked the National Testing Agency (NTA) to postpone the CSIR-UGC NET exam, scheduled to be held from June 25 to 27, “as an abundance of precautionary measures”, in light of information and allegations that the exam may also have been leaked on the dark web.
The decision was taken after a series of marathon meetings led by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, which were also attended by UGC Chairman M Jagadesh Kumar and Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, The Indian Express reported. This came on the same day that the Ministry of Personnel and Training notified the central government’s new exam leakage prevention law, the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, which was passed by Parliament in February.
The NTA has been conducting the CSIR-UGC NET in online mode on behalf of the UGC and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research since December 2019. Around 20 lakh candidates were expected to appear for the CSIR-UGC NET from June 25 to 27.
It is learnt that the education minister was informed on Friday about the claim on a messaging app that the CSIR-UGC NET exam papers had been leaked. Though the ministry had not received any representation on the matter from the home ministry or I4C (Home Ministry’s Cyber Crime Prevention Centre), as was the case with UGC-NET, it was decided to postpone the exams so that there was no doubt about the integrity of the papers, officials said. Now, the NTA has been asked to prepare new question papers and then conduct the exams.
However, in an official notification released on Friday evening, the NTA said the exams have been postponed due to unavoidable circumstances and “logistical issues”.
CSIR-UGC NET, held twice a year in June and December, serves as a qualifying exam to determine eligibility for Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs) and lecturers in science disciplines in Indian universities and is an important criterion for admission to PhD programs. Prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science and the IITs accept CSIR-UGC NET as a qualification for applying to PhD programs. Meanwhile, UGC-NET is a prerequisite for admission to PhD programs and entry-level teaching positions in higher education institutions in all disciplines other than science.
The CSIR NET exam is divided into three parts, namely Part A, B and C. Part A consists of a general aptitude test while Parts B and C are subject-based tests selected by the candidates from five options: Chemical Science, Earth Science, Life Science, Mathematical Science and Physical Science.
The decision to postpone CSIR-UGC NET comes as the Ministry of Education and NTA grapple with allegations of fraud and leaks of exam questions in the NEET undergraduate exam, which was held on May 5. The exam is key to admission to all MBBS programmes in the country. Bihar police have arrested 13 people, including four NEET candidates and their parents, as well as members of an organised crime gang who allegedly gathered 35 candidates at a school under Ramakrishna Nagar police station to conduct a mock test ahead of the exam, where they allegedly received the NEET question paper and answer keys.
Initially, the Union government was on the defensive, but on Thursday, Pradhan, referring to the investigation into the alleged document leak in Bihar, admitted for the first time that there had been “some mistakes that were confined to certain areas” and took “moral responsibility” for losing the trust of young people and students. The Chief Minister announced that the government would decide the fate of the NEET-UG 2024 exam after receiving the final report on the status of the Bihar police investigation.
Sources said the education ministry had not received the Bihar police report till Friday evening. However, it is learnt that so far the government is not in favour of cancelling NEET-UG and holding a re-examination for all 2.4 million candidates across the country as it believes that the issue is confined to certain regions and a large number of students, especially from rural areas, will be unfairly penalised. However, a final decision will be taken after receiving the Bihar police report, government officials said.
Pradhan on Thursday also announced the setting up of a high-level committee to clarify responsibilities within the NTA regarding the UGC-NET leak and review its structure and functioning. The committee is expected to be informed over the weekend along with its mandate.
The investigation into the UGC-NET question paper leak case has revealed that the question paper was leaked on Sunday and may have been made available on the darknet and encrypted social media channels.Sources said that the question paper was suspected to have been sold for an amount exceeding Rs 50 lakh.
The CBI registered an FIR in the matter on Thursday following a complaint from the education department. The FIR has been registered against unknown suspects for cheating and criminal conspiracy.
