NEET-UG 2024: Option 4 correct in Physics question, IIT-Delhi expert panel informs Supreme Court

IIT Delhi panel confirms fourth option as correct answer in NEET-UG physics question, impacting over 4 lakh candidates.

An expert panel of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) - Delhi on July 23 informed the Supreme Court that the fourth option of a contentious physics question in the 2024 NEET-UG paper is the correct answer. The finding was part of the report submitted by the institute during the ongoing Supreme Court hearing on the controversial paper leak.

NEET-UG 2024 hearing updates, July 23, 2024

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Monday asked the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi Director to assign three of its finest professors to solve a tricky and “ambiguous” question in the exam’s Physics paper within 24 hours and report back. Their answer would impact the total marks of over four lakh candidates, including 44 students who scored perfect scores in the exam.

The check comes on the back of a challenge from some students who gave the exam, alleging that the list of top-ranked students could change depending on how the students were marked on this question.

The NEET question under the lens deals with two statements about the nature of atoms.

The first statement is “atoms are electrically neutral as they contain equal number of positive and negative charges”. The second is “atoms of each element are stable and emit their characteristic spectrum”. The students were given four options on the correctness of the two statements.

Over 4.20 lakh students went for the second option, which was correct according to an old version of the standard National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbook, while 9.28 lakh students chose the fourth option as their answer, which is right according to the new edition of the NCERT textbook.