A medical body urged the Supreme Court to restructure or replace the National Testing Agency, saying recurring NEET-UG paper leaks harm 22.7 lakh students. It warned these leaks amount to a direct assault on their fundamental rights today.
A medical body has urged the Supreme Court to order the restructuring or replacement of the National Testing Agency (NTA) with a more robust and autonomous system to conduct NEET-UG, stating that the recurring paper leaks amount to a direct assault on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students.
The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), represented by lawyer Tanvi Dubey, also requested a direction to constitute a high-powered monitoring committee until a new body is formally established to oversee the re-examination.
FAIMA said the committee should be chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge and include a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist to prevent further leaks.
It said the NEET-UG 2026 undergraduate medical entrance test conducted by the NTA on May 3 was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of a paper leak, which are currently being investigated by the CBI.
FAIMA and the NTA, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the CBI have been named as respondents in the plea.
It said,
“The present writ petition…seeks the urgent intervention of this Hon’ble Court against the recurring, systemic and catastrophic failure of the NTA in conducting the NEET-UG,”
According to the petition, the Rajasthan Police Special Operations Group (SOG) found that “guess papers” circulating on WhatsApp and Telegram allegedly contained 120 questions identical to those in the Biology and Chemistry sections of the NEET-UG 2026 paper.
Despite NTA’s assertion that it had deployed advanced security measures, including 5G jammers, GPS tracking, and AI-monitored cameras, the plea alleged these safeguards existed only on paper.
The plea said,
“Direct mandating the ‘digital locking’ of question papers and a transition to a ‘computer based test’ (CBT) model, as suggested in the aftermath of previous leaks, to eliminate the physical chain-of-custody risks,”
It further sought a directive for the CBI to submit a status report to the apex court within four weeks detailing the investigation into the leak, including the network traced, arrests made, persons charged, and the progress of prosecutions.
For what it described as transparent detection of anomalies, the plea asked that the NTA forthwith publish centre-wise results (as and when available) of NEET-UG 2026.
It said,
“NEET-UG is a national level examination for undergraduate medical admissions in India, directly affecting the academic and professional futures of over 22.7 lakh students. The recurring instance of systemic failure is a direct assault on the fundamental guarantees of equality and right to life/livelihood under Articles 14 and 21,”
The petitioner argued that the existing examination system lacks adequate safeguards and said that despite repeated paper leaks over the years, authorities have not implemented the necessary reforms to protect the integrity of the exam.
It added that the NTA continues to rely on risky, old-fashioned methods such as physically printing question papers and using private couriers for transport, which it claimed make the process vulnerable to leaks.
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The petition also said the issue is not limited to a single incident.
Drawing parallels with the 2024 paper leak, it stated that the NTA has not addressed prior lapses.
The plea referred to earlier judicial remarks about unauthorised access to strongrooms and what it described as the “highly sensitive” movement of question papers using e-rickshaws and private couriers.
With the cancellation of the exam, more than 22 lakh medical aspirants and their families are now reportedly anxious about the next steps such as the date of the fresh examination, issuance of admit cards, assignment of examination centres, and the counselling schedule.