'Learn from UPSC': Supreme Court on NEET-UG 2026 cancellation after paper leak

HEaring a mess of petitions o'er the NEET-UG medical spellbind exam's cancellation after a paper leak out, the sublime Court on Friday remarked that the National Testing Agency (NTA) could learn from the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).Justice PS Narasimha also asked orally how the failure could occur despite a high-powered committee having been formed after a similar incident in 2024. “Either there is something wrong with the original recommendation or there is no proper implementation,” the judge remarked, LiveLaw reported.The government then informed the court that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally supervising the NEET-UG re-conduct. This submission was made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta after the apex court sought a response from the government in an affidavit detailing how and in which manner the process and conclusion of the leak probe would be done.“Honourable Prime Minister is personally supervising,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court, according to LiveLaw.A High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE) was constituted by the Union ministry of education in June 2024, following the NEET-UG paper leak controversy that year. It was headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, and held extensive consultations with state governments, police authorities, technology experts, student groups, and global testing agencies, also receiving over 37,000 responses via the MyGov portal.The committee submitted its report in October 2024, making recommendations that covered data security, restructuring of NTA, mental health support, and tech safeguards. Key proposals included transitioning to online or hybrid exams, plus reducing dependence on private vendors, and expanding NTA's permanent staffing. The 2026 leak, despite this, has raised serious questions about implementation.The UPSC conducts the Civil Services Examination (CSE), the national-level recruitment test for top-tier government positions, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), and Indian Foreign Service (IFS). Over 5.8 lakh candidates appeared for the UPSC preliminary exam to compete for about 1,000 vacancies, resulting in a 0.17% success rate.As for NEET-UG, the NTA data says over 22 lakh students competed for roughly 1.1 lakh MBBS and other medical seats.Amid this, former army chief General VK Singh recently said that "in the army, paper leak doesn't happen". He said the military uses a system wherein “one person checks only one question” across all answer sheets: “You can't have a fairer system than that.”The NTA is facing Supreme Court scrutiny following the cancellation of the May 3 NEET-UG exam, prompted by a "guess paper" racket where over 120 leaked questions overlapped with the actual booklet. This breach has forced a nationwide re-test scheduled for June 21. The court expressed deep concern over the failure, suggesting the NTA model its security after the UPSC to prevent future systemic collapses.The NTA informed the court that it has undertaken wide-ranging structural and security reforms following the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak.The matter pertains to pleas filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and the United Doctors Front (UDF), which have sought a structural overhaul of the examination body over alleged irregularities in the conduct of NEET-UG 2026.In the affidavit, the NTA stated that a High-Powered Steering Committee (HPSC), in a meeting held on April 17, 2026, reviewed preparations for NEET-UG 2026 and recommended extensive pre-exam, during-exam and post-exam safeguards. These included mandatory CCTV checks and preservation of footage for at least 90 days, mock drills at examination centres, weather-based contingency planning, verification of power backup systems, emergency medical facilities, and detailed inspections of centres in the week preceding the examination.The committee also recommended post-examination forensic analysis of CCTV footage to detect anomalies and irregular conduct that may not be identifiable in real time.The affidavit further stated that the HPSC will reconvene after the re-conduct of NEET-UG 2026 to deliberate, in consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare, whether future NEET examinations should be conducted in computer-based test (CBT) mode or continue in pen-and-paper test (PPT) mode.The NTA also informed the cthat several recommendations of the High-Level Committee of Experts (HLCE) have already been implemented or are at an advanced stage of implementation.As part of the restructuring process, 16 new senior posts have been created within the NTA; a secretary-level officer was also appointed as Director General of the NTA in March 2026, it told the court.The agency further stated that domain experts from institutions such as IITs, UGC, CBSE, KVS and IGNOU have been engaged to strengthen examination management and security mechanisms.