NEET-UG paper leak: Doctors’ body moves Supreme Court to make NTA a statutory body accountable to Parliament

The United Doctors Front on Saturday (May 16, 2026) moved the Supreme Court of India seeking the transition of the National Testing Agency (NTA) from a registered society to a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament to ensure constitutional and parliamentary accountability.

The doctors’ body said the 2026 paper leak was part of a “recurring, systemic, and catastrophic failure” of the NTA in conducting the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET-UG)”.

“The NTA’s current legal status as an autonomous society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, creates an accountability vacuum,” the petition filed through advocates Ritu Reniwal and Mahendra said.

The doctors’ body said, unlike the Union Public Service Commission or the Staff Selection, the NTA was not directly answerable to Parliament. It operated under the Ministry of Education, which shielded the agency from direct CAG audits and mandatory Parliamentary committee probes.

“The recurrence proves that cosmetic administrative tweaks and expert committees like the K. Radhakrishnan Committee are inadequate without a fundamental legislative overhaul,” the petition said.

The doctors’ front sought the dissolution of the NTA in its current form and the enactment of a Parliamentary Act to create a new testing authority.

“This statutory shift would ensure direct Parliamentary oversight – the chairperson and functions would be defined by law, making the body directly answerable to the legislature. It would ensure financial transparency through mandatory end-to-end CAG audits, statutory penalties for leaks and a legally mandated grievance redressal mechanism for students, while eliminating outsourcing ambiguities by restricting the role of private vendors in core examination functions,” the petition said.

NEET-UG constitutes the sole gateway for undergraduate medical admissions in India, directly dictating the academic and professional futures of over 22.7 lakh students. The recurring compromise of this examination was a direct assault on the fundamental guarantees of equality and right to life/livelihood under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

‘Guess paper racket’

Despite claims of high-tech safeguards via GPS tracking, AI-assisted CCTV, and biometric verification, the examination was “compromised by an organised ‘guess paper’ racket. Forensic comparison by the investigating agencies allegedly revealed that this “guess paper” (comprising 410 questions) contained a 100% match for the Biology (90 questions) and Chemistry (45 questions) sections of the actual NEET-UG 2026 paper.

The petition said CBI FIRs confirmed that examination material was circulated via digital platforms well before the test date. This “systemic breach” led to the unprecedented total cancellation of the exam and financial exploitation of desperate candidates.

“The complete cancellation of the exam operates as a formal admission by the state that its sanctity was breached at a systemic level, making it impossible to segregate the beneficiaries of the fraud from genuine, meritorious candidates,” the petition said.