Supreme Court declines CBT shift for NEET-UG 2026 retest

The Supreme Court has declined to order the National Testing Agency to conduct the re-examination for the NEET-UG 2026 medical entrance test in a computer-based format, allowing the scheduled pen-and-paper retest to proceed on June 21. The decision came from a vacation bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Aravind Kumar, which observed that directing such a change at this stage would pose practical difficulties for the authorities.

The court was responding to a petition, filed by advocate Satyam Singh Rajput on behalf of petitioners including an MP, which sought urgent directions to shift the re-examination to a computer-based test (CBT) mode. The plea argued that repeated allegations of paper leaks and security lapses had exposed vulnerabilities in the pen-and-paper system. Justice Narasimha noted the NTA was already under significant pressure, stating there was no question of granting such relief now as the examination had already been cancelled once and was being reconducted. The bench posted the matter for a hearing in July, tagging it with other pending pleas seeking reforms in the NTA's functioning.

The NEET-UG 2026 examination, originally held on May 3, was cancelled...