The Federation of Indian Medical Associations (FAIMA) has called the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) failure in conducting the National Eligibility Test (NEET-UG) “repeated, systemic and catastrophic” and urged the Supreme Court to adopt a “stricter approach”.
The NTA “haphazardly” ignored the recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee and the Supreme Court’s directions after the 2024 leak. “A mechanism should be put in place to ensure that any non-compliance leads to exemplary punishment,” FAIMA said in the petition.
FAIMA said the “repeated digital breaches” and “administrative paralysis” at the NTA, which are causing multiple paper leaks, warrant that the Supreme Court should invoke its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 142, which it had earlier used to “strike the Medical Council of India of its independent policy-making powers”.
The petition demanded that the apex court “step in and order the creation of a modern, reliable and transparent system so that the future of millions of students is never again at risk”.
Too much dependence on salespeople
The petition said the NTA is relying heavily on unverified private service providers for logistics, including center management and security, shifting public funds to the lowest-cost infrastructure despite repeated warnings against it by parliamentary standing committees and the Supreme Court when it heard the NEET UG 2024 paper leak case.
He said the apex court pointed out the lapses in the NTA system in 2024. These included unauthorized access to vaults, transportation of highly sensitive investigation materials in e-rickshaws and through private couriers, absence of any prescribed time limit for submission of OMR sheets and total lack of direct supervision of invigilators.
In 2024, the back door of the Hazaribagh vault was opened and unauthorized persons were allowed access to the pre-exam question papers. “Despite these lapses which were expressly pointed out by the SC, the NTA has failed to implement meaningful corrective measures,” FAIMA said.
“NTA continues to rely on risky, old-fashioned methods such as physical printing of question papers and use of private couriers for transportation, which makes it prone to leakage,” the petition said, adding, “It is also overly dependent on third parties to outsource the management of exam centers and the transportation of exam materials, thereby destroying the secrecy of this exam.
Future leaks
The petition said that trying to re-conduct NEET-UG 2026 using exactly the same flawed methods and private contractors without taking the safeguards of the Radhakrishnan Committee first is “highly irresponsible”. “This virtually guarantees that there will be another paper leak, causing further trauma to the students,” it said.
In 2024, the Supreme Court warned that the NTA, which is tasked with conducting competitive exams, cannot afford to make mistakes and correct them later. Flip flops are the bane of justice, they said.
The petition states that though the NTA had assured the candidates that the examination process would not be tampered with, it had to cancel the NEET-UG 2026.
“Such contradictory and reactive administrative behavior demonstrates an absence of institutional preparedness, a lack of responsible decision-making and a complete failure to maintain the degree of certainty and fairness expected of a national examination body entrusted with the future of millions of students,” the petition said.
Cosmetic improvements
While the Radhakrishnan Committee suggested that the NTA update its logistics, storage and transportation protocols, the NTA continued to rely on a massive, outdated physical chain of administration. He did not switch to a secure and encrypted digital delivery system.
“By irresponsibly outsourcing these critical duties to the lowest bidder private contractors and unverified logistics partners, the NTA left the question papers completely exposed. This complete failure of physical security allowed criminals to easily access, copy and distribute the paper long before the exam date,” the petition said.
The NTA’s technological enhancements, such as GPS tracking and 5G jammers, were “unnecessary and cosmetic”. “These leaks have been happening for years, proving that there is no robust and transparent mechanism under the current NTA framework,” FAIMA said.
Lack of enforceability
The reoccurrence of investigative leaks demonstrates the failure of enforcement despite the enactment of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Fraudulent Means) Act 2024. The government has strengthened anti-paper leak measures through a law that makes organized paper leakers face up to 10 years in prison, yet this legislation has proven woefully inadequate in the absence of a preventative institutional architecture to enforce it.
This Act is purely punitive in nature and provides redress only after a leak has occurred and has no provision for a permanent independent body to proactively check, monitor and prevent leaks.
“The state cannot repeatedly flout this expectation, post-facto quash investigations, order CBI probes and return to the same flawed system for another cycle. Such a pattern of behavior is not just negligence, it is a constitutional failure,” the petition said.
“The repetition of an even larger compromise in 2026 (compared to the 2024 leak) demonstrates ‘institutional incompetence’ rather than ‘random failure,'” FAIMA said.
“In light of such a systemic collapse, merely canceling the exam is a ‘band-aid’ solution to a ‘surgical’ problem. There is an urgent need for the SC to exercise its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 32 and lay down strict, permanent guidelines for transparency and digital security.”
Published – 14 May 2026 22:22 IST
