On May 12, the National Testing Agency (NTA), acting on inputs from central and enforcement agencies about possible paper leak and examination irregularities in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test – Undergraduate (NEET-UG), 2026, canceled the entrance exam.
Editorial | Testing Issues: National Testing Agency, NEET-UG 2026
This is not the first time the exam or the agency that administered it has come under scrutiny for allegations of malpractice. However, this is the first time that the annual all-India medical entrance examination, which is conducted for admission to more than 10 medical courses, has been cancelled. The retest is now scheduled for June 21.
Through this exam, students compete for more than 2.8 lakh places in undergraduate courses in dental surgery, veterinary science and animal husbandry, nursing, physiotherapy and audiology and speech pathology, among others. MBBS remains the most sought after course with around 1.29 lakh available. Admission to top state medical schools typically requires a score of 650-720 points.
The NEET-UG question paper consists of 180 compulsory questions carrying +4 marks for each correct answer and −1 for each wrong answer. NEET-UG is conducted in 13 languages and is an objective type (multiple choice) exam where each question has four answer options. The exam includes MCQs in Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology.
This year NEET-UG was held on May 3 and about 22.79 lakh candidates registered for the exam out of which about 22.05 lakh appeared. The exam was conducted at 5,432 centers in 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad.
Also read | CBI arrests ‘mastermind’ linked to NEET-UG 2026 biology paper leak
Following the paper leak, which was confirmed by the central government, it was claimed that around 120–140 questions in the leaked document corresponded to those in the actual NEET-UG 2026 exam. NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said that the exam “cannot be allowed” and that the decision to cancel it was taken to maintain transparency, fairness and credibility of the process.
The idea of an all-India common medical entrance examination was first proposed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in 2010. Ten years later, the MCI was disbanded due to allegations of corruption and lack of transparency and replaced by the National Medical Commission.
Legal challenges
Introduced to create a standardized single entrance test for medical institutions across India, NEET was first conducted in 2013. The exam immediately faced legal challenges from several states and private colleges, prompting the Supreme Court to temporarily scrap it.
In 2016, the Supreme Court reinstated NEET and since then it has been a mandatory entry for admission to government, private, deemed and central medical institutions, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS).
Apart from legal battles, NEET 2024 has also faced allegations of language and curricular differences, paper leaks and pardon disputes. The K. Radhakrishnan Committee, set up in the wake of the 2024 allegations, identified weaknesses in the system such as over-reliance on external staff and private inquiry centres, weak CCTV and transport monitoring systems and monitoring of written examination for over 20 million students in a single day. It also recommended biometric authentication, encrypted digital paper delivery and hybrid/online testing models.
Following the NEET-UG 2026 controversy, the proposed changes for next year’s exam include a likely shift from an offline Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) format to a Computer Based Test (CBT) mode. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on May 15 that the government is planning major reforms to improve security and transparency.
The K. Radhakrishnan committee also recommended that the NTA, set up in 2017 by the central government as an autonomous testing organization under the education ministry, needs restructuring along with tighter security at the center level for the exams it conducts. NTA conducts several examinations including Common Entrance Test (Main), Common University Entrance Test, UGC – National Eligibility Test and several recruitment and scholarship tests.
Published – 17 May 2026 01:25 IST
