Modi Will Monitor NEET, Says Centre

A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe made the observation while hearing petitions seeking restructuring of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET-UG. The court said accountability would be effective only when responsibility is fixed on specific individuals.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the Centre was seriously concerned about issues affecting students and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally monitoring the situation. He said new mechanisms had been put in place for the NEET-UG re-test scheduled on June 21, but declined to disclose details.

The apex court was hearing pleas, including the one seeking a direction to replace or restructure the National Testing Agency (NTA), which is responsible for conducting the NEET-UG, with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance examination.

Mehta said the issue relates to youths and the government is seriously concerned about their concerns. "Some new mechanisms are also put in place for the June 21 examination. It may not be appropriate to divulge what is there, otherwise the very purpose will be frustrated. It is being monitored at the highest possible executive level," he said.

The court cited the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as an example, noting that its examinations had not faced similar paper leak allegations. It said institutions must develop systems and continuity instead of depending on individual officers.

"It is actually very traumatic if something like this happens, not just for the students, but also their families and everybody. They invest so much emotion," the top said as it highlighted the problem that most of the institutions were ad-hoc.

"So much so, that you will have the best of the officers working and everybody will depend on that. It is not the individual who has the capability, it is the institution which has the capability. That is what you need to prepare," it said.

In an affidavit, the NTA said NEET-UG would be conducted in computer-based test mode from next year following recommendations of a high-level committee. It said NEET-UG was the only major NTA examination still held in pen-and-paper mode and that the transition would be implemented in consultation with the Union health ministry.

The NTA said a high-level committee of experts (HLCE) has recommended transition of NEET-UG to the CBT mode. It said that among the major NTA examinations, only NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted in the pen and paper (PPT) mode, primarily according to the scheme of the ministry of health and family welfare and the national medical commission.

It said all other major NTA examinations are already conducted in the CBT mode.

"The HLCE has specifically recommended transition of NEET (UG) from PPT to CBT mode, along with the introduction of multi-session and multi-stage testing," said the affidavit filed by Director (Legal), NTA.

"The transition will be implemented from the next examination cycle in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare (the client ministry for NEET-UG) - thereby bringing all major NTA examinations onto the CBT platform," the NTA added.

It also noted that Dr K. Radhakrishnan, who is a former chairman of the ISRO and presently working in honorary capacity as the chairman of the high-powered steering committee on NTA reforms, has also filed an affidavit indicating the implementation of the recommendations of the committee and the future course of action.

The top court asked the Centre to file an affidavit indicating how and in which manner the process of conduct and conclusion of the examination, year after year, will be done. It said the Centre would also indicate the method by which an "institutional memory through continuity of human resource, institutional expertise through deployment of specialised personnel and institutional plurality by composition of experts is put in place".

"The endeavour is to ensure that NTA would have the wherewithal, physical as well as intellectual, to ensure that no incidents such as the 2024 or 2026 examinations occur," the top court said.

It asked the Centre to file the affidavit within six weeks and posted the matter for hearing in the second week of July.

The top court asked Radhakrishnan, who was present in the court, how much monitoring of the implementation has happened.

"Also tell us how did this failure occur? Despite the monitoring on the basis of the high-powered committee's recommendation, if this incident has happened, then there is something wrong with the original recommendation because it did not conceive of a situation which would have arisen," it said.

Radhakrishnan said many of the recommendations were initiated already. In 2025, NEET-UG was conducted "almost satisfactorily" barring a couple of incidents of power failure in some of the examination centers, he said.

On May 12, the NTA cancelled the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET, held on May 3 amid allegations of paper leak. A re-examination has been scheduled for June 21.

The paper leak allegations are under investigation by the CBI.

After the questions of NEET-UG were allegedly leaked in 2024, the top court had refused to cancel the test but passed various directions aimed at tackling paper leaks and also a criterion for cancelling public exams.

While hearing the pleas on May 25, the top court observed it's sad that the NTA has not learnt lessons from the earlier NEET paper leak.

It had sought the response of the Centre, NTA and CBI on pleas for the replacement of the testing agency with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance exam.

The top court had issued notice on the pleas, including the one filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association for replacement of NTA with a robust mechanism.