“NTA Has Not Learnt Lessons”: Supreme Court Slams Agency in NEET Leak Case

The controversy surrounding the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak intensified on Monday, with the Supreme Court sharply criticising the National Testing Agency (NTA) for failing to prevent another examination scandal even after last year’s controversy, while a Delhi court simultaneously sent a key accused in the case to six days of CBI custody .

Hearing petitions seeking restructuring or replacement of the NTA, a bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe remarked that it was “sad” the agency had not learnt lessons from the previous paper leak episode that had also reached the apex court.

“The matter travelled to this court earlier also. There was a committee, a monitoring committee, which made some recommendations and they were accepted,” the bench observed while directing the NTA to file an affidavit detailing the steps taken to implement those recommendations.

The court issued notices to the Centre , the NTA , and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on multiple pleas demanding a more robust and autonomous mechanism to conduct the highly competitive medical entrance examination. The bench also asked the committee led by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan , constituted earlier to overhaul the NTA’s functioning, to explain the compliance measures adopted so far.

The petitions, including one filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) , argue that recurring paper leaks amount to a direct assault on the rights and future of over 22.7 lakh students who appear for the examination every year. The plea has sought either a complete restructuring of the NTA or its replacement with an independent examination authority monitored by experts in cybersecurity and forensic science under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge.

The latest hearing comes amid a widening criminal investigation into the alleged leak. Earlier in the day, a Delhi court sent Pune-based physics lecturer Manisha Sanjay Havaldar to six days of CBI custody .

According to the CBI , Havaldar worked as a translator for NEET-UG and allegedly circulated confidential physics questions that were sent for translation before the examination. The agency described her as a crucial link in the leak network and said custodial interrogation was necessary to uncover the larger conspiracy.

Havaldar, employed with Seth Hiralal Saraf Prashala in Pune, was arrested on May 22 and later brought to Delhi on transit remand. Investigators believe digital evidence and communication records could expose a wider chain of individuals involved in compromising the integrity of the examination.

The undergraduate-level NEET exam , conducted on May 3 for admissions into medical programmes across the country, was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of a paper leak. The case is currently under an extensive CBI investigation , while pressure continues to mount on the NTA over repeated questions regarding examination security and transparency.

With judicial scrutiny intensifying and the investigation gathering pace, the future structure of India’s medical entrance examination system may now face one of its biggest institutional overhauls in recent years.