In his first statement after taking over once again as Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, on Thursday rejected allegations of paper leak in the medical entrance exam NEET-UG, saying there is no evidence to substantiate the claims and added that the Government is ensuring no student is at a disadvantage. Pradhan said the Opposition-led by Congress is spreading lies on sensitive issues without knowing facts.

Soon after a series of developments during the day, the number of top rankers in NEET-UG is to come down to 61 from 67 after the NTA’s decision to withdraw grace marks awarded to 1,563 students. Six of these 1,563 candidates who appeared in the medical entrance exam from a centre in Haryana had shared the top rank with 61 others.

"There is no evidence of paper leak in NEET-UG. The allegations of corruption in NTA are unfounded, it is a very credible body,” said the Minister.

He said, “It conducts exams for more than 50 lakh school students annually, besides exams at the higher education level.”

"If these candidates do not wish to take the re-test, then their earlier marks, sans the grace marks, will be given for the purpose of results. The grace marks that were awarded earlier were not at the whims and fancy of NTA but were based on a Supreme Court formula, there is a basis to those calculations. If there are certain anomalies, those will be rectified and we will ensure that no student is at a disadvantage," Pradhan said.

The education ministry last week set up a four-member panel to review the grace marks awarded to 1,563 students to compensate them for "loss of time" due to delay in starting the examination at certain centres.