Let us consider a young woman in Jharkhand who studies for two years with her phone light during the absence of electricity. For mock tests, she has to give up on her family’s important occasions. Her parents, who have lent their savings for coaching, are a schoolteacher and a housewife. On 3rd May 2026, after riding a bus for four hours, she takes her NEET test. She comes out tired but optimistic. After nine days, the test is cancelled. This is not a fictional story. This is the truth about examinations in India in 2026.[1]
A PATTERN, NOT AN ANOMALY: NEET’S CONSISTENT CRISIS
Failures of 2026 are not isolated incidences but rather a direct result of rot that occurred in 2024.
The problem of NEET-UG examination leakages had surfaced on 5 May 2024. In Patna, Bihar, 13 people were detained by the police for having leaked NEET-UG question papers for which four students had paid between Rs. 30 lakhs to Rs. 50 lakhs. The cost amounts to more than a decade’s earnings of the average Indian family.[2]
The outcome was statistically impossible when the results were declared on 4 June 2024.[3] Although there were protests, and even the Supreme Court recognized that around 155 candidates had been favoured by the leak, they refused to nullify the national test because of the absence of evidence indicating any contamination nationwide.[4] The CBI has made forty-plus arrests,[5] while the government has constituted a reform panel headed by ex-ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan and the Supreme Court subsequently closed the 2024 matter on the government’s assurance that reforms would be implemented.[6]
NEET 2026: THE CYCLE CONTINUES
A total of 2.27 million students appeared for the NEET-UG on 3 May 2026.[7] By 12 May, the National Testing Agency (NTA) decided to cancel the entire examination.
What caused this drastic decision? There was a 60-page handwritten chemistry guess paper, which started making rounds prior to the exam in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. On comparison, 120–140 questions matched.
Further inquiry revealed that the entire conspiracy had occurred from within. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested P.V. Kulkarni, a professor of chemistry at Dayanand Science College, Latur, who belonged to the committee tasked with formulating the questions for NEET 2026.[8] Within days, Shivaraj Motegaonkar, owner of a Latur coaching institute,[9] and Manisha Sanjay Havaldar, the headmistress of a Pune school, were taken into custody by the investigators.[10]
By June, there were ten significant arrests in Delhi, Jaipur, Gurugram, Nashik, Pune, Latur, and Ahmednagar. The final nail in the coffin was driven in when it emerged that this syndicate had been responsible for leaking the NEET 2025 question paper as well.[11]
Conceding to the failure of the “command and control chain,” Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced plans for the transition to computer-based examinations by 2027.[12] In evaluating multiple petitions filed on 29 May 2026, the Supreme Court termed the experience a “traumatic one” for the students and expressed regret at the NTA’s lack of learning from 2024.[13] The Supreme Court ordered immediate changes in the examination system and planned a new round of the test on 21 June 2026 under heavy security conditions.[14]
THE CBSE ON-SCREEN MARKING CATASTROPHE
Meanwhile, Class 12 students found themselves amid another digital debacle. CBSE implemented the On-Screen Marking (OSM) platform in the 2026 board examinations. Students submitted physical answer scripts to CBSE and the latter scanned them for online marking. On 13 May 2026, the results revealed multiple problems such as unclear scan images, missing pages, incorrectly aligned answer scripts, and entirely unmarked parts.[15]
The early indicators were overlooked. In February, CBSE’s OASIS portal crashed while testing its efficiency. The portal’s failure was blamed on poor bandwidth and corrupted profiles of teachers.[16]
Moreover, Nisarga Adhikary, a 19-year-old student and ethical hacker, identified critical vulnerabilities in the OSM portal and reported them to CERT-In in February 2026.[17] Yet the vulnerabilities remained unpatched by the agency. Adhikary confirmed that the examiner accounts could be hijacked and the Amazon Web Services storage holding the answer sheets could be accessed.[18] CBSE initially considered the concerns to be groundless before eventually acknowledging the security gaps.[19]
Under political pressure and demands for a judicial inquiry into the contract given to Coempt Eduteck,[20] CBSE caved in. It reduced re-evaluation costs from ₹5,000 to ₹100 and made the OSM portal accessible publicly on 2 June 2026.[21]
STRUCTURAL COLLAPSES, INSTITUTIONAL INDIFFERENCE
It is the result of an administration that places public relations above all else.
The NTA, established in 2017 to make the process of administering national exams more professional, has been the source of all these problems, as it remains understaffed, poorly managed, and entirely free from personal liability — lacking the “individual accountability” emphasised repeatedly by the Supreme Court.[22]
In addition, the requirement for paper-based tests poses yet another challenge, since the supply chain for printing, packing, transporting, and storing physical copies in numerous centres can be easily breached by highly adaptable criminal organisations.[23]
The process itself is rather predictable and reactive:
- Crisis occurs.
- CBI investigates and Supreme Court issues notices.
- Ministry regrets, establishes expert committee.
- Committee writes report and promises drastic reforms.
- Next paper leak happens.
THE HUMAN COST AND SOCIOECONOMIC DIVIDE OF A RE-TEST
In an interview with Al Jazeera, a student from Dehradun stated the betrayal plainly: “They are liars and a corrupt bunch of people taking away our life and future hostage.”[24]
The preparation for NEET takes anywhere between two to four years along with a huge amount of expenditure for one three-hour period of the test. The cancellations of exams create a psychological impact that cannot be compared to any monetary losses, leaving students disillusioned regarding whether hard work is ever rewarded with merit.
Even more devastating is the fact that a re-examination brings about unequal consequences. The rural candidate may have to bear the cost of travelling back to the city, arranging accommodation, and absorbing a further loss of family income — all with no reimbursement from the NTA or the government.[25] Many of these students are first-generation learners with no older siblings who have navigated the system, no alumni networks, and no institutional support to lean on when plans collapse without warning.[26]
This points out the ultimate irony of India’s exam crisis. The original leaks take place only because there are rich people who can afford paying anything between ₹30 lakh and ₹50 lakh for cheating in the exam. But the price of the re-test — in bus fares, lost wages, and psychological exhaustion — is borne entirely by the poor and honest students who never had the option to cheat in the first place.
THE ROAD AHEAD
- Universal CBT System — Implementation of computer-based testing for all examinations conducted through the NTA, with an efficient decentralised system of regional examination centres so that no student has to travel beyond a few hours.
- NTA Under Independent Statutory Board Management — Overhaul of NTA with a statutory board comprising independent educationists, civil society members, and parliamentary supervision with strict individual responsibility imposed.
- Anti-Paper Leak Act Implementation — Rigorous enforcement of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024 with fast-track courts and serious criminal penalties.
- Transparent Evaluation Systems — Conducting extensive third-party testing and cybersecurity audits of all digital evaluation systems well prior to examinations, not as an afterthought.
- Socioeconomic Equality Obligations — Mandatory reimbursement of transportation costs, provision of temporary accommodation assistance, and access to psychological support services for disadvantaged students during any re-examination period.
CONCLUSION
The scandal of 2026 has nothing to do with leaks or bugs in the system; rather, it is about the collapse of meritocracy and the erosion of trust in institutions.
How can there ever be a fair process when a student who saved every rupee just to afford the bus fare sits in the same hall as a privileged candidate whose paper was purchased through a leak? How can there be fairness in a system where one child’s CBSE answer sheet is scanned perfectly while another’s vanishes from a wrongly configured cloud database?
All the apologies on television do not help if a first-generation student cannot walk into an exam room with the quiet confidence that her years of effort will be judged honestly and fairly. That is the minimum the state owes its students. In 2026, it has not come close to delivering it.
Author(s) Name: Disha Bhavya (Ajeenkya DY Patil University, Pune)
References:
[1] Yashraj Sharma, ‘How India’s CBSE exam scandal set off student outrage against PM Modi’ (Al Jazeera, 04 June 2026) <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/4/how-indias-cbse-exam-scandal-set-off-student-outrage-against-pm-modi> accessed 09 June 2026
[2] ‘2024 NEET controversy’ (Wikipedia) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_NEET_controversy> accessed 09 June 2026
[3] Ibid
[4] Vanshika Yadav v Union of India (2024) INSC 568; 2024 NEET Controversy (n 2)
[5] ‘NEET UG Paper Leak Row: CBI files first charge sheet; names 13 people as accused’ (Careers360, 01 August 2024) <https://news.careers360.com/neet-ug-paper-leak-row-cbi-files-first-charge-sheet-in-neet-paper-leak-names-13-people-as-accused> accessed 09 June 2026
[6] ‘NTA ‘lapses’ in NEET UG 2024: SC closes case as Centre assures to implement suggested reforms’ (Careers360, 07 April 2025) <https://news.careers360.com/neet-ug-2024-supreme-court-closes-case-centre-assures-implement-expert-panel-suggestions-nta-exam-reforms> accessed 09 June 2026
[7] ‘2026 NEET Controversy’ (Wikipedia) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_NEET_controversy> accessed 09 June 2026
[8] ‘NEET-UG 2026 Leak: CBI Arrests Alleged ‘Kingpin’ Behind Exam Paper Scam’ (The Researchers, 15 May 2026) <https://www.theresearchers.us/2026/05/15/neet-paper-leak-cbi-arrests-professor/> accessed 09 June 2026
[9] 2026 NEET Controversy (n 7)
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid
[12] Ibid
[13] P Sesh Kumar, ‘How CBSE OSM Turned Board Results Into a National Scandal’ (The Probe, 31 May 2026) <https://theprobe.in/education/cbse-osm-result-2026-examination-failure-india-11891206> accessed 09 June 2026; Samriddhi Ojha, ‘NEET UG 2026 Paper Leak Supreme Court Seeks Comprehensive Plan to Overhaul NTA’ (LawStreet Journal, 29 May 2026) <https://lawstreet.co/judiciary/neet-ug-2026-paper-leak-supreme-court-seeks-comprehensive-plan-to-overhaul-nta> accessed 09 June 2026
[14] Kavya Nair, ‘Supreme Court Forces NTA Overhaul Following NEET-UG 2026 Leak’ (Whalesbook, 29 May 2026) <https://www.whalesbook.com/news/English/sebiexchange/Supreme-Court-Forces-NTA-Overhaul-Following-NEET-UG-2026-Leak/6a19670549974139aeceeae6> accessed 09 June 2026
[15] ‘2026 CBSE On-Screen Marking controversy’ (Wikipedia) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_CBSE_On-Screen_Marking_controversy> accessed 09 June 2026
[16] Kumar (n 13)
[17] 2026 CBSE On-Screen Marking controversy (n 15)
[18] Ibid
[19] Ibid
[20] Ibid
[21] Ibid
[22] ‘Fix Accountability or Else: Supreme Court Warns NTA as PM Takes Charge of NEET Paper Leak Fallout’ (Outlook India, 29 May 2026) <https://www.outlookindia.com/national/fix-accountability-or-else-supreme-court-warns-nta-as-pm-takes-charge-of-neet-paper-leak-fallout> accessed 09 June 2026
[23] Kumar (n 13)
[24] Sharma (n 1)
[25] Fix Accountability or Else: Supreme Court Warns NTA as PM Takes Charge of NEET Paper Leak Fallout (n 22)
[26] Sharma (n 1)