The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking the replacement of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the conduct of a fresh NEET-UG 2026 examination under judicial supervision.
The development came a day after the NTA cancelled India's largest medical entrance test — taken by over 22 lakh students on May 3 — following a paper leak scandal that saw alleged "guess papers" matching more than 100 questions circulate freely on WhatsApp and Telegram before the exam began.
The petition, filed through advocate Tanvi Dubey, challenges what FAIMA calls a "systemic failure" of the NTA — not merely an isolated lapse — and asks the court to direct the Union Government to replace the agency with a "more robust, technologically advanced, and autonomous body" for conducting NEET examinations going forward.
The plea comes in the wake of a scandal that has since triggered a CBI investigation, the arrest of 15 accused across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Haryana, and a nationwide outcry from students who had spent years preparing for an exam that was rendered meaningless by an organised paper leak network.
A Sikar-based PG hostel owner's tip to the NTA — after being turned away by local police — first unravelled the conspiracy, which investigators have traced from a Nashik printing press through a multi-state chain of brokers and counsellors selling the paper for up to Rs 30 lakh per copy.
FAIMA's petition goes beyond demanding accountability for the current crisis. It seeks the constitution of a High-Powered Monitoring Committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge, along with a cybersecurity expert and a forensic scientist, to supervise the re-conduct of NEET-UG 2026 until a new independent examination body is formally set up.
ALSO READ: NEET UG Paper Leak: How a Sikar Hostel Owner Blew The Whistle On Exam Scandal
The plea also demands a transition to a Computer Based Test model and digital locking of question papers to eliminate physical chain-of-custody risks — the very vulnerability exploited in the current leak.
On the investigative front, the petition asks the court to direct the CBI to file a status report within four weeks detailing arrests made, the network identified, persons charged, and progress of prosecution. It further seeks publication of centre-wise results of NEET-UG 2026 to enable transparent detection of anomalies.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has been approached over NEET irregularities. Following the 2024 paper leak, the court had hauled up the NTA and demanded accountability — yet two years on, the same examination stands cancelled under near-identical circumstances, lending weight to FAIMA's central argument that the problem is structural, not incidental.
ALSO READ: 'Not A Big Deal': Rajasthan Education Minister Madan Dilawar Downplays NEET UG Exam Cancellation
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