NEET-UG 2026 Cancellation : 'UPSC Never Had Paper Leak, NTA Needs To Learn' : Supreme Court Seeks Union's Affidavit On Reforms

Hearing a plea concerning the NEET-UG 2026 cancellation due to paper leak, the Supreme Court on Friday raised concerns over the ad-hoc nature of the National Testing Agency (NTA), and said that unless clear accountability is fixed, the problems will recur.

A bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe considered petitions seeking to disband the NTA. During the heairng today, the bench observed that the NTA needs to learn from other bodies like the UPSC which conduct large-scale competitive exams without any paper leak.

"UPSC has never been a situation, you need to learn," Justice Narasimha said.

"The real problem won't stop till actual accountability arises. Not in terms of so and so will be liable, it will be effective when we know which individual shoulders the responsibility. Unless you identify the specific duty bearers, it will be difficult," Justice Narasimha said.

"The problem is that most institutions are ad hoc. It's a phenomenon that is everywhere in the country. It's not the individual who has the capability but the institution," Justice Narasimha said.

After a brief hearing today, the Court asked the Union of India to file an affidavit indicating the method through which an "institutional memory of continuity" can be created through employment of specialised personnel so that the NTA will have the physical and intellectual wherewithal to conduct the exams in future without any blemish.

Advocate Tanvi Dubey, appearing in main petition, also handed over a list of suggestions for the NTA.

Bench interacts with the head of the monitoring committee

Today, Dr. K Radhakrishnan, the head of the Monitoring Committee constituted by the Court in 2024 to suggest recommendations to strengthen NEET, was present before the Court, pursuant to the previous order.

At the outset, Justice Narasimha questioned how the present controversy could arise despite the committee's recommendations and subsequent reforms.

"How much monitoring of implementation has happened? How has this failure occurred? Despite a high-powered committee, if this incident happened, there is something wrong with the original recommendation or there is no proper implementation," the judge remarked.

Responding, Radhakrishnan informed the Court that the committee had submitted 35 long-term recommendations and around 60 short-term recommendations, most of which had already been implemented.

He said that the reforms had largely yielded positive results in NEET-PG 2025, which was conducted "mostly satisfactorily" except for some issues such as power outages.

Addressing the controversy surrounding NEET-UG this year, Radhakrishnan submitted that the committee had made recommendations covering both the pre-examination and post-examination stages.

Justice Narasimha, however, pressed him on whether the committee had specifically contemplated the kind of failures now being alleged.

Radhakrishnan responded that the committee's primary concern at the time had been preventing tampering of question papers. While many safeguards had been implemented, he assured the Court that the vulnerabilities exposed this year had been addressed for the proposed re-NEET examination scheduled next month.

The Bench also sought details regarding the committee's functioning.

"Does the committee meet regularly?" Justice Narasimha asked.

After Radhakrishnan answered in the affirmative, the judge shifted the focus to the issue of institutional accountability.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, assured the Court that the government was treating the matter with utmost seriousness, noting that the issue directly affected the country's youth.

Justice Narasimha, however, drew a comparison with other examination bodies and observed that such controversies had not arisen in examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

Later in the hearing, Radhakrishnan elaborated on the committee's findings regarding structural deficiencies within the NTA. He said the committee had found that the agency lacked sufficient domain experts and had recommended bringing in specialists from different systems, including experts involved in conducting the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

He further stated that significant reforms had been undertaken in the transportation and handling of question papers, an area that had previously been vulnerable.

Justice Narasimha then broadened the discussion to the larger issue of institution-building in India, commenting on the ad-hoc nature of NTA.

The Solicitor General informed the Bench that following last year's controversy, a detailed examination had been undertaken of the entire examination chain, from the printing press to the point where a candidate receives the question paper. He said fresh vulnerabilities had been identified during the latest examination cycle and corrective mechanisms had been devised.

However, Mehta submitted that it would not be appropriate to place certain security-related measures in the public domain, though the committee had already identified the relevant areas and the reforms would be implemented before the next examination.

"The Hon'ble Prime Minister is personally supervising it," SG said.

Justice Narasimha said that what happened was "traumatic" for the lakhs of students who spent years preparing for the test. "We should not disappoint our youngsters, its very traumatising so much investment of emotions and time."

Justice Narasimha suggested the creation of a permanent mechanism to receive and evaluate inputs to strengthen the system.

"You can establish a small monitoring committee to accept such suggestions and collaborate with leading universities," he observed.

When the Solicitor General indicated that experts from the IITs could be involved, Justice Narasimha endorsed the idea of sustained academic collaboration.

"Have some collaboration full-time with some universities. Methods and ideas keep changing. For instance, in AI, we would be coordinating with a university," the judge said, stressing the need for continuous technological and institutional innovation in examination management.

Background

On the last hearing, it had expressed its anguish that the NEET-UG 2026 had to be cancelled over a paper leak. The Court orally remarked that despite the directions issued by the Court in 2024 regarding the paper leak two years ago, the National Testing Agency(NTA) has not learned its lesson.