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 body to a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament to ensure constitutional and parliamentary accountability.

The doctors’ body said the 2026 document leak was part of NTA’s “repeated, systemic and devastating failure” in conducting the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET-UG).

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

The doctors’ body said that unlike the Union Public Service Commission or Staff Selection, NTA is not directly accountable to Parliament. It operated within the Ministry of Education, which shielded the institution from direct CAG inspections and mandatory Parliamentary committee investigations.

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

The doctors’ camp wanted the NTA in its current form to be abolished and an Act of Parliament to be introduced to create a new testing authority.

“This legislative amendment will provide direct Parliamentary oversight; the chairperson and functions will be defined by law, making the body directly accountable to the legislature. Financial transparency will be ensured through mandatory end-to-end CAG audits, legal penalties for leaks and a legally mandated grievance redressal mechanism for students, while removing uncertainties in outsourcing by restricting the role of private vendors in core review functions,” the petition said.

NEET-UG forms the sole gateway for undergraduate medical admissions in India and directly determines the academic and professional futures of more than 22.7 lakh students. The continued compromise in this review was a direct attack on the fundamental guarantees of equality and the right to life/livings under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

‘I think it’s a paper racket’

Despite claims of high-tech protection through GPS tracking, AI-enabled CCTV and biometric verification, the exam was “compromised by a regular ‘guess paper’ racket. Forensic comparison by investigating agencies allegedly revealed that this ‘guessing paper’ (consisting of 410 questions) contained 100% match with the Biology (90 questions) and Chemistry (45 questions) sections of the actual NEET-UG 2026 paper.”

The petition stated that CBI FIRs have confirmed that exam materials were distributed through digital platforms much before the test date. This “systemic violation” led to the unprecedented complete cancellation of the exam and the financial exploitation of desperate candidates.

“The complete cancellation of the exam amounts to an official admission that the sanctity of the state has been violated at a systematic level, making it impossible to distinguish those who benefit from fraud from genuine, worthy candidates,” the petition said.