New Delhi, July 15: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the National Testing Agency’s decision to cancel the original NEET-UG 2026 examination and conduct a nationwide re-examination, holding that the matter no longer survived as the fresh examination had already been completed.
A Bench comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe observed that the petition had become infructuous because the re-examination had already taken place, bringing the legal challenge to the cancellation of the original examination to an end.
During the hearing, counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that the plea also sought institutional and structural reforms in the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and requested that it be tagged with other pending petitions concerning examination reforms.
The Bench orally observed that the petitioner was at liberty to intervene in the batch of pending cases seeking reforms in the examination-conducting body, while declining to entertain the challenge against the re-examination itself.
The petition was filed by Dr Mangala Kohli, former Assistant Director General of Health Services, through Advocate-on-Record Abhishek Chandra Mishra. It had challenged the NTA’s decision to cancel the NEET-UG 2026 examination conducted on May 3 and order a nationwide retest following allegations of paper leaks and examination malpractice.
The plea argued that while allegations of examination fraud required thorough investigation and strict action against those responsible, the constitutional rights and legitimate interests of lakhs of genuine candidates should not be affected due to institutional and administrative failures of the examination-conducting authority.
According to the petition, investigations conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation indicated a localised operational compromise involving specific organised networks rather than evidence suggesting that the integrity of the entire nationwide examination had been compromised.
The petitioner contended that the cancellation forced nearly 22 lakh medical aspirants, including those with no connection to the alleged irregularities, to appear for another national-level examination. The plea claimed that the decision imposed significant academic, mental and financial hardship on candidates while disrupting the medical admission process.
Apart from challenging the re-examination, the petition also sought institutional, structural and technological reforms in the conduct of national-level competitive examinations. These included independent oversight mechanisms, enhanced security safeguards, encrypted digital delivery of question papers, biometric authentication and AI-assisted monitoring systems.
Earlier, on June 17, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant had declined an urgent hearing on the PIL after noting that NEET-UG 2026-related matters were already pending before a Bench headed by Justice P.S. Narasimha. The Chief Justice had directed that the matter be placed before the same Bench.
Meanwhile, the National Testing Agency conducted the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination on June 21 after cancelling the original examination over allegations of irregularities. More than 20 lakh candidates appeared for the re-examination at 5,440 centres across India and 14 centres abroad.
The NTA implemented extensive security arrangements for the re-examination, deploying nearly 7 lakh personnel, including examination staff, police personnel, observers and administrative officials. More than 95,000 examination rooms were monitored through over 1.38 lakh CCTV cameras, while more than 51,000 signal jammers were installed to prevent electronic malpractice.
The re-examination also incorporated Aadhaar-based biometric verification, facial authentication, two-layer frisking, real-time surveillance and command-and-control centre monitoring as part of measures aimed at ensuring transparency and maintaining the integrity of the medical entrance examination.
