The NEET-UG 2026 examination has come under fresh scrutiny after a candidate approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging discrepancies in her OMR answer sheet and score, claiming that her marks were changed from 520 to 85.
The High Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to produce the candidate's original OMR sheet and scorecards in a sealed cover. The case will be heard again on August 14.
Candidate flags multiple score changes
The petition was filed by Diksha Devi, who appeared for the NEET-UG re-examination. She claimed that the NTA uploaded her OMR sheet on July 13 along with the correction window.
After comparing the responses on the sheet with the official answer key, she calculated her score at 520 out of 720. However, when the NEET result was declared on July 16, her score was shown as 85.
According to the petition, the candidate subsequently received another OMR sheet from the NTA on July 17. While the personal details on both sheets were identical, she alleged that the answers marked on them were different.
The second OMR sheet, according to her petition, corresponded to a score of 85 marks.
The candidate then raised a grievance with the NTA. An email received by her on July 19 allegedly mentioned a score of 520 marks, with the same figure appearing on the accompanying mark sheet.
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She and her family later visited the NTA office and submitted a written complaint on July 20.
The petitioner claimed that her score was subsequently changed back to 520, but on July 27 it was again changed to 85.
During the hearing, her counsel told the court that two different scorecards had appeared on the NTA website and alleged that the OMR sheet had been changed.
NTA's counsel, however, told the court that the representation submitted by the candidate had already been decided and placed on record an email dated July 27.
After considering the submissions, a Bench of Justice Suvir Sehgal and Justice Deepinder Singh Nalwa directed that the original OMR sheet and scorecards be produced before the court in a sealed cover.
The latest dispute comes weeks after the NEET-UG examination faced a paper-leak controversy, following which a re-examination was conducted on June 21 for affected candidates.
The court's order now places the original examination records at the centre of the dispute, with the next hearing scheduled for August 14.
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