NEET Paper Leak Row: Supreme Court Rejects Urgent Plea For Computer-Based Retest

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday has refused an urgent hearing on a petition related to the NEET (UG) 2026 re-examination that was scheduled for June 21. The petition sought to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET UG) 2026 in computer-based testing (CBT) mode.

What did the Supreme Court say?

The bench comprising of Justices PS Narasimha and Arvind Kumar declined to take up the matter urgently and said that it would be listed after the court vacation.  

During the hearing, the petitioner demanded that the exam be conducted in a CBT (Computer Based Test) mode instead of the traditional pen-and-paper mode .

Responding to the plea, Justice Narasimha said, "They (NTA) are reholding the exam. The kind of pressure they have. We will post after vacation."

What is the case?

Several petitions have been filed on various issues related to NEET (UG) 2026. This petition sought to conduct the exam in CBT mode to make it more transparent and secure. Following the Supreme Court's stance, the exam scheduled for June 21 is likely to be held in its current format.

How did the leak-proof system fail? 

The National Testing Agency (NTA) had put in place a very stringent security framework to make the NEET exam completely leak-proof after the 2024 controversy, but the NEET UG 2026 paper leak has raised serious questions about the credibility of the entire system.

The NTA's high-security paper-setting operations center in New Delhi was completely sealed and air-gapped. Mobile phones, laptops, internet, and any external devices were not permitted there. Every document was monitored, and all rough notes were destroyed daily. Yet, the paper was still leaked.