The National Testing Agency that conducts competitive exams in India including the Joint Entrance Examination-Main (JEE Main) recently came under scanner over alleged paper leak claims after seven persons from a private consultancy firm were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for charging Rs 15 lakh per candidate for a seat in top engineering colleges in the city.

The CBI official said that a probe is underway to trace who others took the same services from a private agency for appearing in exams. The opposition has also demanded for a Supreme court-monitored enquiry for the same and questioned the transparency of the examinations conducted by the NTA. An official from NTA close to the matter, however, denied charges that the agency was not taking enough measures to protest against unfair means.

Meanwhile, as candidates are worried if the alleged scam can affect the JEE Mains and JEE Advanced exam cycle, the Indian Express reported that it is unlikely for NTA to delay the results for the August-September cycle.

An NTA official further clarified that this was not a paper-leak that can result into cancellation of the examination. There were no leakage of exam paper, the scam was an outcome of “unfair mean” that the CBI will unearth, he said. The results of the candidates involved will be cancelled, he further added.

NTA will release the preliminary JEE Main 2021 answer key for session 4 held on September 1&2 online on the official website soon. Candidates will be given a certain time period to send objections or challenges against the answer key. After considering all the challenges, the final JEE Main answer key 2021 for phase 4 will be released. NTA will consider the best score of the four attempts.

NTA official said that it had caught nine cases in its August 26 to September 2 cycle in which candidates were found to be using unfair means during the examination and will stand debarred from taking the JEE (Mains) for three years. Moreover, 23 centres were blacklisted depending on certain parameters for letting candidates use unfair means and another 97 more were kept under’ special watch’

The NTA has, meanwhile, asked TCS iON for an explanation on how the JEE(Main) examination process was breached.