Students Federation of India (SFI) members staged a protest march in New Delhi on Tuesday. After the National Testing Agency (NTA) canceled the NEET-UG exam due to allegations of paper leakage. | Photo credit: ANI
Following the cancellation of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-Under Graduate (UG) 2026, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the entrance exam, has again come under scrutiny for alleged lax operational capacity, porous cyber security and poor crisis communication, according to experts.
Also read | NEET-UG 2026 canceled LIVE: Process of re-examination will begin in 7-10 days: NTA DG Abhishek Singh
Since its introduction in 2013, the National Entrance Test (NEET) is facing cancellation and re-testing for the first time in full, although it has gone through a difficult period in 2024 with a limited re-test for 1,563 candidates who have received grace marks due to the loss of exam time at certain centers and annual charges from various states; candidates and coaching institutes paying huge amounts to get leaked question papers and answer keys before the test; photographs of papers taken and circulated with gangs handing out prepared answers for students to memorize quickly before the exam begins; suspiciously high scores and grade inflation; and “organized cheating centers”.
NEET is a national entrance exam for admission to more than 10 undergraduate medical courses in India. It is one of the largest entrance exams in the world, with 20-24 thousand candidates appearing every year for more than 2.5 thousand seats in all courses that use NEET scores.
In 2013, NEET-UG was conducted for the first time. In 2014–2015, admission to medical courses temporarily reverted to separate state and private medical entrance exams, but a year later the Supreme Court revived NEET and the exam is now conducted by the NTA, which took over from the Central Board of Secondary Education in 2019.
Talking about several risks in the NEET-UG examination system, Rajeev Jayadevan, former president of Indian Medical Association (Kochi), explained that NEET-UG examination centers are spread across many places in India and abroad.
“While security measures against test center fraud are moving with the times, the old-school pen-and-paper method of testing itself appears to be the weak link in the chain. The question paper must be physically printed, distributed, stored and transported to individual centers – each a point of vulnerability for leakage. If such a high potential demand would not likely help to breach the system again, even a single photo of a paper question would suffice.” the system has changed,” said Dr. Jayadevan.
Since many other tests are already in digital format, it is time to upgrade the NEET-UG system to a computerized platform so that the number of potential security breach points is much less and the distribution is encrypted, added Dr. Jayadevan. Students of today’s generation are far more digitally literate than those of the past, and the transition to digital shouldn’t be difficult, he said, with other experts also calling for stronger digital security, decentralization of the admissions process to allow more attempts per year, and a hybrid census that incorporates ability and school results.
Merely canceling the exam cannot be the final solution to such a massive scam, said Lakshya Mittal, president of the United Doctors Front. “This is not the first time that serious allegations and irregularities have surfaced regarding the NEET examination. Repeated incidents over the years clearly indicate the existence of a deep-rooted nexus and systemic failure that can no longer be ignored,” said Dr. Mittal.
Doctors and health experts are now demanding a high-quality, time-bound and transparent examination of the whole matter. Earlier, following the 2024 NEET-UG paper leak controversy and irregularities, the central government and the NTA introduced a number of reforms, including the Public Examinations (Prevention of Fraudulent Means) Act 2024, which criminalises paper leaks, syndicate cheating, impersonation and organized examination fraud; the creation of a high-level reform committee to review the functioning of the NTA and recommend structural reforms; and the proposed transition to digital/hybrid exams and enhanced cyber security measures.
Published – 12 May 2026 21:01 IST
