The National Testing Agency canceled the NEET-UG 2026 exam on Tuesday, nine days after 2.27 million students took the exam in 551 cities, after central agencies confirmed that the question paper had been hacked. The questions were available on some individuals’ phones as early as May 1 – two days before the exam.
This is the second time in two years that NEET-UG is under a cloud. The testing agency has handed over the case to the CBI and said that a re-test will be scheduled soon.
“We take responsibility for what happened; it was a mistake,” NTA Director General Abhishek Singh said at a news conference, in one of the most direct admissions of institutional failure made by the agency since its founding in 2018. “The paper leaks must end with immediate effect.”
The cancellation came as a result of a wave of complaints and police reports that began pouring in in the two days following the exam. After verification by central agencies, the match was confirmed.
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Singh said the agency acted on all the input it received before the test — including blocking 120 Telegram channels that were selling fake papers claiming to be real — but pointed to one specific tip-off: a whistleblower alert after the test that proved the breach had actually occurred. The leaked PDF was available on a few people’s phones on May 1 and 2. “This was against a zero-tolerance policy,” Singh said.
“This could have affected the future of more than 22 lakh (2.2 million) students who are preparing hard for the exam. It is in their best interests that we have taken this difficult step.”
A re-examination will be conducted and the schedule will be announced in the next seven to 10 days, Singh said. No additional fees will be charged; The first exam fee will be refunded.
Singh said the agency’s efforts will be to conduct the re-test in the shortest possible time so as not to disrupt the academic calendar and admission schedule of medical colleges.
Despite repeated attempts, Singh did not respond to HT’s specific queries about the findings of the investigation that led to the cancellation decision. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan refused to answer media questions about the cancellation.
Investigators have traced a multi-state network behind the leak — one that transmitted the question paper from its point of origin through a chain of intermediaries across at least six states before it reached students on the night of May 2.
A handwritten ‘guess sheet’ of 410 questions, of which 120 were taken from the original NEET paper embedded inside to hide the leak, was circulated through coaching centres, paid guest hostels and a paid WhatsApp group.
The city of Sikar in Rajasthan — the country’s second-largest coaching hub, whose centers produced a higher percentage of NEET scorers than any other city in 2024 — has emerged as the network’s primary distribution node. Thirteen people were arrested. Officials of the Rajasthan Special Operations Group, which led the crackdown before handing over the case to the CBI on Tuesday, said the entire network included at least 45 individuals.
The scale of the disruption is unprecedented in the history of the NTA. The 2.27 million students who showed up in pen-and-paper mode across India and 15 cities abroad must now prepare again – with no confirmed date, uncertainty in scoring similarly, and the admission cycle for MBBS, BDS and AYUSH courses thrown into disarray.
Abhishek Verma, an aspiring student from Lucknow, was tracking the provisional answer key released on May 6 and believed he was on his way to getting a seat in the government medical college.
“Based on the provisional answer keys, I was getting 620 marks out of 720 and was going to get into a government medical college to study MBBS. Now I have to study again for the exam and score the same or more as the paper might be tougher than the one conducted on May 3,” he said. Describing the development as “disheartening”, Verma said resuming the final phase of preparation would be mentally exhausting.
This announcement sparked protests across the country. In Delhi, All India Students Federation activists clashed with police during a demonstration demanding the dissolution of the NTA, with protesters jumping barricades and clashing with security forces. Former JNUSU president Ayesha Ghosh, who was among those demanding the removal of the agency, said the protest reflects years of accumulated grievance. “This has happened every year since the establishment of the National Testing Agency, but the government does nothing. We demand the dismissal of a system like the NTA,” she said.
Separately, NSUI members burned effigies of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and NTA chief Pradeep Joshi.
The cancellation of 2026 comes in the shadow of a crisis in 2024. That year, an unprecedented 67 candidates out of more than 24,000 examinees placed first, sparking allegations of paper leaks, grace mark irregularities, and inflated voting cut-offs, leading to nationwide protests, a Supreme Court intervention, and a CBI investigation. Dr Lakshya Mittal, president of the United Doctors Front, said unfinished business in the 2024 investigation left the scope open for a repeat. “If a proper investigation had been conducted for 2024, this situation would not have arisen again in 2026,” he said.
NEET-UG is the gateway to undergraduate medical education in India – 180 compulsory questions, 720 marks, three hours, one chance at a government university seat for students who have often spent years preparing. Singh acknowledged the weight of what was undone. “This is sad for everyone involved,” he added. “We will not allow any violations to occur in any exam.”
