Exempt NEET for 2026–27, allow states to admit students based on marks in qualifying exam: Stalin urges PM Modi

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to promulgate an Ordinance to amend section 14 of NMC Act, 2019, to exempt NEET for 2026–2027 academic year.

He also said the Union government should allow the state governments to admit students based on the marks obtained in the qualifying examination.

In a letter addressed to the PM, Stalin expressed "deep concern and urgency over repeated failures, systemic vulnerabilities, and growing public distrust" surrounding the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, particularly in light of the shocking cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 following a massive nationwide paper leak.

The examination, conducted on May 3, was cancelled after a "guess paper" containing over 400 questions, including substantial matches exceeding 120 questions in Biology and Chemistry, circulated widely across WhatsApp and Telegram groups before the examination, he said.

Reports say that the leak originated in Nashik, Maharashtra, spread through Haryana, was printed and distributed in Rajasthan districts, including Sikar, Jaipur, and Jamwa Ramgarh, and eventually reached candidates in Bihar, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and several other states.

A multi-state network involving at least 45 individuals was uncovered, leading to arrests and a CBI investigation. Nearly 22.8 lakh students were thrown into uncertainty, with lakhs of honest aspirants once again being punished for institutional failures, the DMK president said in the letter.

"Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The history of NEET and its predecessor examinations reveals a disturbing and consistent pattern of irregularities. In 2015, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), the predecessor to NEET, witnessed a massive paper leak facilitated through bluetooth-enabled cheating devices and organised rackets," he pointed out.

Following this, the Supreme Court was compelled to cancel the entire examination affecting nearly six lakh students, and a re-examination had to be conducted.

He listed out series of alleged irregularities, controversies, impersonation, cheating racket leading to multiple arrests by CBI, over the conduct of the test in 2016, 2017, between 2020 and 2021, 2022, and said the 2024 NEET-UG examination became one of the most controversial entrance examinations in recent memory. Allegations of paper leaks in Bihar, Patna, and Hazaribagh, reports of burnt question papers, unusually high numbers of perfect scores, arbitrary grace marks, suspicious clustering of toppers in select centres, and allegations of candidates paying between Rs 30 lakh and Rs50 lakh to access leaked papers triggered nationwide protests, he added.

At least 155 students were found to have directly benefited from the leaks. Several private centres in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Gujarat came under serious scrutiny for grave irregularities, compelling the CBI to initiate investigations.

"Compounding the crisis are persistent problems with exam-centre allocation and infrastructural deficiencies. Students from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka have repeatedly been allotted centres in distant states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, forcing economically weaker families to bear enormous travel and accommodation expenses," Stalin pointed out.

Many centres reported poor infrastructure, inadequate lighting and ventilation, delays in biometric verification, a shortage of invigilators, broken furniture, and loss of examination time during OMR distribution. The burden of these repeated failures falls disproportionately on poor and rural students.

He argued that since its inception, the NEET has systematically disadvantaged students from poor, rural, government-school, Tamil-medium, and socially marginalised backgrounds.

While the examination was projected as a mechanism to ensure merit and transparency, the reality on the ground has been starkly different. "NEET has effectively transformed medical admissions into a highly commercialised, coaching-centre-driven process in which economic privilege increasingly determines success rather than genuine academic capability or social commitment," the DMK chief claimed.

(With PTI inputs)