'No lessons learnt from previous incidents': Supreme Court to NTA on NEET paper leak, seeks response from Centre & agencies

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday expressed disappointment that the National Testing Agency (NTA) had failed to learn from previous instances of paper leaks, as it sought responses from the Centre, NTA and CBI on pleas seeking the replacement of the agency with a more robust and autonomous body for conducting the NEET-UG examination.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe directed that copies of the petitions be served to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and other respondents.

The court asked the NTA to file an affidavit by Thursday detailing compliance with its earlier directions issued in 2024.

“It’s sad that they have not learnt their lessons. The matter travelled to this court earlier also. There was a committee, a monitoring committee which made some recommendations and they were accepted. We want NTA to file an affidavit on the steps taken for compliance of recommendations suggested by the committee,” the bench observed.

The court was hearing a plea filed by the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) through advocate Tanvi Dubey, among other similar petitions, which it tagged together for hearing.

The bench also directed the NTA to file an affidavit on the status of the monitoring committee constituted on November 14, 2024.

It further asked the High Powered panel headed by Dr K Radhakrishnan, to file an affidavit on the steps taken to ensure compliance with the committee’s recommendations.

In 2024, the Supreme Court had declined to cancel the NEET-UG exam but issued several directions to address paper leaks and laid down guidelines for the cancellation of public examinations.

In the instant matter, FAIMA urged the apex court to direct the restructuring or complete replacement of the NTA with a technologically advanced and autonomous institution to restore credibility in medical entrance tests.

The plea described the recurring leaks as a “direct assault” on the fundamental rights of over 22.7 lakh students who appeared for the exam.

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.

The petition highlighted reports that “guess papers” circulated on encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram matched more than 100 questions from the actual paper.

FAIMA has also sought the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and including cybersecurity and forensic experts, to oversee the re-conduct of the NEET-UG 2026 exam.

Another petition filed by the United Doctors Front has called for the dissolution of the NTA citing its “systemic failure” in conducting the examination.