National Testing Agency identified a total of 56 imposters from the February cycle of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2021. The authorities employed face comparison techniques of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect any kind of impersonation. The 56 candidates that were caught during the exam have their images matching some of the top 20,000-ranked candidates of the JEE Main 2019 and 2020 examination. Interesting thing was that while the faces matched, there were certain differences in the credentials of these candidates.
NTA has notified the test centres about these candidates. Images, as well as identification documents of these imposters, are being collected during entry to the examination hall. Ministry of Education (MoE) sources have informed that details of the 56 candidates shall be shared with testing centres and institutions. The primary aim is to not grant admission to such candidates in case impersonation is proved.
JEE Main 2021 first cycle or the February cycle began on February 23, 2021. The first day of the cycle was for Architecture (B.Arch) and Planning (B.Plan) papers while Wednesday, February 24, 2021 was the first day of (B.Tech) papers. According to the information provided by NTA, a total of 6.6 lakh students registered for the February 2021 cycle.
According to a ministry official, 2021 is the third year of NTA organising the JEE Main examination. Authorities have informed that impersonation cases were reported during JEE Main 2021 as well as NEET 2021 whose results came out on October 16, 2021. There were rumours of previous-year toppers impersonating, scoring higher marks and securing admission in a reputed institution. All this for someone else. Taking this into consideration, NTA decided to improve the examination system to aware testing centres of such fraudulent activities. It also decided to monitor candidates appearing for the exam.
The official confirmed that after the registration process, authorities matched the candidates’ images with those of previous year toppers. Repeaters shall be present in the examination but their credentials shall match. However, the 56 imposters had their images matching with previous years candidates ranking within the top 20,000. However, their details such as candidate name, date of birth, father’s name etc did not match.
NTA had also conducted a manual verification process a day before the examination. They alerted the centre officials about the centres where these 56 candidates were scheduled to appear for the exam. Centres were instructed to take live photographs and identification documents during entry time. After the end of examination, this information must be sent to the NTA headquarters.
The ministry official further stated that post-declaration of results, NTA may send these images to the institutions for verification. Necessary action shall be taken in case the registration form image does not match with the candidate’s actual face.
