NEET-UG paper leak | 'Learn from UPSC': Supreme Court to NTA, bats for individual, institutional accountability

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the National Testing Agency (NTA) needs to learn from other bodies like the UPSC which conduct large-scale competitive exams without any paper leak.

The top court was hearing pleas in respect of cancellation of NEET UG examination in view of paper leak.

Even as the Centre claimed the government was treating the matter with utmost seriousness and the Prime Minister was personally supervising it, a bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe expressed serious concern over the “ad-hoc” nature of the NTA.

The court cautioned that recurring problems in conducting major examinations would persist unless clear individual and institutional accountability is established.

The NEET-UG 2026 examination, held on May 3, was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of paper leakage. The CBI is currently investigating the case.

Hearing petitions seeking to disband the NTA, the bench observed that the agency must draw lessons from institutions like the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which has conducted large-scale exams for decades without leaks.

“UPSC has never been in such a situation. You need to learn,” Justice Narasimha remarked.

The court emphasised that mere general liability clauses would not suffice.

“The real problem won’t stop till actual accountability arises... Unless you identify the specific duty bearers, it will be difficult,” the bench said, adding that the issue of ad-hoc institutions was a wider phenomenon across the country.

“It is not the individual who has the capability but the institution,” the bench underscored.

The court directed the Union government to file an affidavit detailing how an “institutional memory of continuity” could be built by employing specialised personnel, enabling the NTA to conduct examinations reliably in the future.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, assured the court that the government was treating the matter with utmost seriousness as it affected the country’s youth.

He said a comprehensive review of the entire examination chain — from printing to delivery of question papers — had been carried out, and fresh vulnerabilities were being addressed.

“The Hon’ble Prime Minister is personally supervising it,” the Solicitor General submitted, while cautioning that certain security measures could not be placed in the public domain.

The court described the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 as “traumatic” for lakhs of students who had invested years of effort.

The bench suggested setting up a permanent small monitoring mechanism in collaboration with leading universities and institutions, including IITs, to continuously evaluate and strengthen the system, especially with evolving technologies like AI.

During the hearing, Dr K Radhakrishnan, former ISRO chairman and head of the court-constituted monitoring committee, which had submitted extensive recommendations to strengthen the NEET process following the 2024 paper leak was present.

The bench asked how fresh controversies could arise despite the committee’s suggestions.

“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 bench opined.

Radhakrishnan said that the committee had given 35 long-term and around 60 short-term recommendations, most of which were implemented. He said NEET-PG 2025 was conducted “mostly satisfactorily” barring issues like power outages.

He said that safeguards for the upcoming re-NEET had been strengthened in response to the latest vulnerabilities.

The bench also sought to know whether the committee met regularly and probed if it had anticipated the specific failures now being reported.

The court noted the NEET-UG 2026 examination was cancelled due to a paper leak, despite the directions and reforms ordered after the 2024 controversy.

Petitions by the United Doctors Front (UDF) and the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) have sought dissolution or restructuring of the NTA, enactment of legislation for a statutory national testing body, and court-monitored conduct of future examinations.

The pleas highlighted the violation of students’ rights under Articles 14 and 21, financial and psychological distress to over 23 lakh aspirants, and the NTA’s continued dependence on private vendors despite recommendations to reduce it.

In 2024, the top court had expanded the mandate of the Radhakrishnan Committee to suggest comprehensive reforms on exam security, transportation, surveillance, and technological safeguards.

The government has also informed the court of plans to eventually shift NEET-UG to computer-based testing.

The bench has now asked the Centre to respond on institutional reforms and is likely to continue monitoring the transition to ensure leak-proof examinations.