New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday issued a stinging rebuke to the National Testing Agency (NTA) over NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, observing that the NTA had failed to learn from the 2024 controversy despite a court-mandated reform process.
Following the 2024 paper leak row, the Centre had formed a high-powered reform committee chaired by K. Radhakrishnan, former ISRO chief.
The SC has now directed both the NTA and Radhakrishnan to file affidavits within three days explaining what steps were actually taken to implement the committee’s recommendations.
“It’s sad that they have not learnt their lesson,” the SC bench comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe said Monday, after being informed that the next exam date had already been announced.
NEET-UG 2026 was held on 3 May across more than 5,400 centres, with approximately 22.7 lakh candidates appearing for the medical entrance examination. Within days, a “guess paper” that had been circulating on WhatsApp and Telegram before the exam day was found to have matched questions worth nearly 600 out of 720 marks.
The material had reportedly been distributed through coaching networks across Nashik, Gurugram, Jaipur and Sikar, with candidates allegedly charged in lakhs for access.
The Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group had first flagged the leak after the “guess paper” surfaced in Sikar, and around 120 questions from the biology and chemistry sections in the final NEET paper were found matched with the “guess paper”.
The NTA then cancelled the examination on 12 May. A re-examination has now been scheduled for 21 June.
Also Read: ThePrint Exclusive: CBI traces NEET paper leak to prof who was part of NTA panel that set paper
What court said
Issuing notice to the Ministry of Education and the NTA on a petition filed by the United Doctors Front (UDF), a rights and advocacy group for medical professionals across India, the top court directed that copies of the writ petition be served to the Solicitor General and all other respondents.
It specifically directed the NTA to file an affidavit on the status of the monitoring committee constituted on 14 November, 2024, and asked Radhakrishnan to file an affidavit detailing steps taken to ensure compliance with the high-powered committee’s directions.
The Radhakrishnan Committee was constituted after the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak triggered nationwide protests and a political storm. The government tasked the panel with recommending structural reforms to secure the integrity of large-scale public examinations.
The committee submitted its report in October 2024, proposing a fundamental overhaul of how exams like NEET are designed, delivered and monitored. However, the petitioners allege that the recommendations were not implemented.
Reforms never implemented
The petition, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution that grants individuals the right to directly approach the SC when their fundamental rights are violated, draws from a broader pattern of complaints, including a parallel writ by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), arguing that the NTA is “structurally incapacitated” to conduct a secure examination.
At the heart of both petitions is the claim that the Radhakrishnan Committee had proposed a sweeping overhaul of examination security and none of it was carried out.
The Radhakrishnan Committee’s report had called for encrypted question papers transmitted digitally to centres for on-site printing shortly before exam time, eliminating vulnerability during physical transit; Aadhaar-linked biometric verification replacing manual identity checks; a ‘Digi-exam’ system for end-to-end candidate identity tracking; and a “Red Team/Blue Team” model of continuous security stress-testing using ethical hackers.
The NTA, the petitioners allege, ignored each of these suggestions and continued to rely on an outdated physical logistics chain outsourced to private contractors.
“Today’s proceedings mark an important step towards accountability and transparency in the examination system,” Dr Lakshya Mittal, chairperson of UDF, told ThePrint.
“The observations made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court clearly reflect the gravity of the concerns affecting crores of students across the country,” he added.
The matter has been listed for Friday, with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta asked to appear in court.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)