NEET paper leak impact: CISF to guard NTA premises; stricter monitoring of “confidential” areas

The National Testing Agency, which recently shifted its operations to a new office following the huge NEET paper leak controversy and administrative lapses, will now be guarded by the CISF to ensure foolproof arrangements in “confidential areas” on its premises, officials said.

The move comes in the wake of the leak of question papers for the NEET-UG medical entrance exam earlier this year, which triggered nationwide protests by students and led to the resignation of the then Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

A day after Mr. Pradhan’s resignation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the formation of a high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to recommend reforms to make the exam system watertight. The panel has not yet submitted its report.

According to the CBI charge sheet, which identified three subject experts as the primary sources of the paper leak, there was no screening or searching of the experts while entering or exiting the confidential section at the National Testing Agency (NTA), which allowed the experts to take brief information from the designed question papers on small chips, made from blank sheets provided to them for rough work and translation.

Established in 2017 under the Ministry of Education to conduct fair, transparent and standardized examinations, the NTA has so far operated from its office in Okhla.

“Dedicated office space measuring 55,000 square feet has been allotted at the Government of India Press Building on Minto Road. The fifth floor and parts of the fourth and sixth floors of the said building have been allotted to the National Testing Agency. Confidential and sensitive operations have been shifted to the newly allotted building during the last month,” a senior official told PTI.

The CBI report also noted that the work of the three accused experts went unnoticed as there was no dedicated control room at the NTA office in the state capital to monitor live CCTV.

On the monitoring plan at the new premises, the official said: “Confidential areas have been demarcated in the building where movement and operations will be strictly monitored to ensure that a reliable system is in place. The Home Ministry has approved security coverage of the premises by Central Industrial Security (CISF),” the official added.

Sharing the details, the official said that 39 CISF personnel have been deployed who will be responsible for security, proper access control and screening measures, including X-ray baggage screening and door metal detectors (DFMD).

“The CISF is deployed at appropriate locations at all entry and exit points to monitor and regulate access to the classified area,” the official added.

Other parts of the Government of India press building are already under CISF cover. While no educational institution in the country has CISF security, the CISF guards the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which conducts recruitment examinations.

A similar leak of the 2024 NEET paper led to the formation of a high-level committee headed by former ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan.

The panel has developed detailed recommendations for improved security controls for exam-critical systems that include question systems, candidate registration, fee payment, admit card systems, computerized testing platforms, OMR processing, normalization engines and results systems.

However, following the 2026 paper leak, the Supreme Court reprimanded the NTA, saying it had “failed to learn its lessons”.

“In mission mode, arrangements are being made to implement strict access controls, encryption standards, immutable logging and storage for all tamper-evident critical workloads.

“Conducting security readiness checks of all exam support systems before each exam cycle in coordination with the NTA’s technology function and coordination with the NTA’s test security function to technically secure exam day workflows – including biometric authentication, face matching, CCTV systems and live monitoring infrastructure – are among the action items being worked on,” the official said.

The agency is also working to maintain examination-specific cyber incident response readiness on exam days, with increased Security Operations Center (SOC) monitoring and rapid response capabilities.

To strengthen information security, NTA has appointed a dedicated Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), the official said.

“The position of CEO and CISO has been advertised and the selection process is at an advanced stage. Independent third-party cyber security audits by CERT-In and C-DAC are still ongoing,” the official added.

Published – 27 Sep 2026 16:51 IST