'Approach HC' : Supreme Court To NEET-UG 2026 Candidates Alleging OMR Discrepancy

The Supreme Court today(August 7) disposed of a writ petition filed by six NEET UG 2026 candidates alleging discrepancies between the answers they had originally marked in their OMR sheets and the copies of the OMR sheets made available by the National Testing Agency (NTA) after the declaration of the examination results.

A bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe disposed of the writ petition and granted liberty for them to approach the Delhi High Court. The bench stated it can't entertain the petition because the re-examination has already taken place and the matter regarding institutionalisation of NTA is sub judice. 

The petitioner's counsel, Advocate Sanjeev Malhotra, stated that they don't wish to interfere with the ongoing counselling and that their limited plea is for access to the OMRs to verify their marks.

The counsel argued that the students have secured scores above 600 and 650 marks, but the OMR sheets differ from what they had actually marked during the examination. He pointed out that NTA provided a window for candidates to raise objections regarding the OMR sheets, but the discrepancy only surfaced after the results were declared. 

Considering this, Justice Narasimha said they can approach the High Court.

It may be noted that many students have approached different High Courts alleging tampering with the OMR sheets. Recently, the Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a plea by a candidate to produce the original OMR sheet on grounds that he failed to establish mala fide. Moreover, he invoked the writ jurisdiction without going to the NTA's grievance redressal mechanism. However, in another similar petition, the Bombay High Court ordered the NTA to produce original OMRs. Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notice in a similar plea.

Case Details: BUSHRA NAIM vs. UNION OF INDIA| W.P.(C) No. 964/2026