A PIL in the Delhi High Court seeks an NIA probe into the July 20 ‘Sansad Chalo’ march over the alleged NEET paper leak, alleging violence, attacks on journalists and foreign funding.
A public interest litigation has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking a court-monitored investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the ‘Sansad Chalo’ march held on July 20 over the alleged NEET paper leak, with the petitioner contending that the demonstration was not a student protest at all but an organised episode of violence backed by political actors and foreign funding.
The petition has been filed by Satish Kumar Aggarwal, a former Vice-President of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, through advocates Sneh Vardhan and Pratibha Sinha. The respondents arrayed in the plea include the Union of India, the NIA, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Commissioner of Delhi Police and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
The allegations in the plea
The petitioner contends that what unfolded on July 20 was not merely a student protest, but involved organised violence, and raises questions about the role of political leaders, alleged foreign funding and a possible larger conspiracy. The plea asserts that the incident throws up issues of national security and ought not to be treated as a mere law-and-order matter.
According to the petitioner, an agitation that began over the alleged leak of the NEET examination paper was subsequently transformed into a political agitation once various political leaders joined in.
The petition alleges that the march was marked by violence and stone-pelting, injuries to police personnel, attacks on journalists, damage to public and private property, and a disruption of public order, along with an alleged attempt to breach the security of the Parliament area.
Background: the protest and the march
The agitation traces to June 2026, when the Cockroach Janta Party a youth-led collective began a sustained protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital, joined by student organisations including the Students’ Federation of India, the All India Students’ Association and the All India Students’ Federation.
Their central demand has been accountability for the alleged leak of the 2026 NEET question paper and the controversy surrounding the CBSE’s on-screen marking, coupled with a call for the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The protest gathered considerably greater momentum in late June, when climate activist Sonam Wangchuk arrived at Jantar Mantar and commenced an indefinite hunger strike, drawing larger crowds and wider political attention. That momentum culminated in the call for a march to Parliament.
Additionally, On July 20, students and other protesters attempted to march from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament, and the Delhi Police erected barricades and imposed restrictions to prevent the march from proceeding beyond the designated protest site. The confrontation that followed with allegations of a lathi charge, tear gas and detentions on one side, and a denial by the Delhi Police of any excessive force on the other has since generated the competing rounds of litigation now before the High Court.
The NEET paper leak controversy
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) is the single national gateway to undergraduate medical admissions in India, taken each year by lakhs of aspirants, which is what lends any allegation of a compromised paper its extraordinary charge.
The current agitation is not the first time the examination has been engulfed in controversy. The 2024 edition of NEET-UG triggered a nationwide storm after allegations of a question paper leak, prompting a CBI investigation and a batch of petitions before the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the examination and a fresh test.
The Supreme Court eventually declined to order a re-test for the entire cohort, holding that the material before it did not establish a systemic breach of the examination’s integrity, even as investigators pursued localised instances of leakage. That episode left behind a durable public anxiety about the security of the examination process the reservoir of sentiment on which the present protests have drawn.
The allegations concerning the 2026 examination, which the protesting students and organisations have raised, are the immediate trigger for the ongoing agitation.