Making a key observation that the body has not learnt lessons from the past experiences, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) on a batch of petitions filed over the leak of question paper for the undegraduate National Eligibility cum Entrance Test 2026 (NEET UG 2026). It has sought NTA's response to the present batch of pleas.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe noted that no lessons seems to have been learnt from the past, alluding to similar allegations of paper leak in 2024 and the Supreme Court's directions issued that year to curb similar occurrences.
"It is sad that they have not learnt their lesson. We passed an order. A committee was formed. It made recommendations, it was accepted . Monitoring committee was also there," the Court said. "We will issue notice. There are also connected matters. We are issuing notice in the connected matters. Copy of the writ petitions to be served on the Ld. Solicitor General and all other respondents. We direct NTA to file an affidavit indicating the position as regards the monitoring committee constituted on November 14. We direct K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the committee, to file an affidavit with the steps taken to ensure compliance with the directions high powered committee. List on Friday (May 29)," the Court directed.
"Next exam date is announced," the counsel for one of the petitioner said, highlighting the date for re-exam announced by the government. The re-examination is scheduled to be held on June 21. "We are not so much on the re-examination," the Apex Court noted. The petitions were filed after the Union government and the National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled NEET-UG 2026, held on May 3. This was after allegations of a widespread paper leak and an ongoing Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
One of the petitions before the top court, filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and represented through Advocate Tanvi Dubey, has sought replacement or restructuring of the NTA and has asked the Supreme Court to order re-conduct of NEET UG 2026 under the supervision of a judicially appointed committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.
The plea has also sought reforms including 'digital locking' of question papers, transition to a Computer-Based Test (CBT) model and publication of centre-wise results to detect anomalies.
Another petition, filed by the United Doctors Front through advocates Ritu Reniwal and Charu Mathur, has attacked the legal structure of the NTA itself and seeks its dissolution in the present form. According to that plea, the NTA, being a society registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, lacks direct parliamentary accountability and functions in what it describes as an 'accountability vacuum'.
Thus, the plea has sought a direction to the Union government to establish a statutory national testing body through legislation passed by Parliament.The petition claims the recurring paper leak controversies violate Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution by compromising merit-based selection and affecting the careers of over 22 lakh candidates.
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