‘Sad they haven’t learned their lesson’: Supreme Court on NTA after NEET 2026 paper leak

The Supreme Court on Monday said it was sad that the NTA had not learned from the leak of the previous NEET paper, and sought responses from the Centre, NTA and the CBI on the pleas seeking to replace the testing agency with a strong and independent body to conduct the medical entrance exam.

A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe directed that a copy of the petitions be submitted to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, along with other parties, and asked the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is responsible for conducting the NEET exam, to file an affidavit by Thursday on compliance with the directions issued by the court in 2024.

“It is sad that they have not learned their lessons. The matter was taken up in this court earlier as well. There was a committee, a monitoring committee, which made some recommendations, and they were accepted. We want NTA to file an affidavit on the steps taken to comply with the recommendations suggested by the committee,” the bench said.

Giving notice on the petition filed by Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), through advocate Tanvi Dubey, the Supreme Court said it brings all similar matters together.

The Centre-appointed committee, led by former Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan, was directed to overhaul the functioning of NTA and detail the steps taken to comply with its directives.

It also sought a direction to appoint a high-level monitoring committee so that a new body can be formally constituted to oversee the re-examination. She also said the committee should consist of a retired Supreme Court judge as chair, along with a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist, to ensure no further leaks occur.

The National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) held by NTA on May 3 for admission to medical education programs was canceled on May 12 amid allegations of paper leak, which is now being investigated by the CBI.