NTA's 'Zero Error' Policy Has Failed to Prevent Repeated NEET Paper Leaks

Source: The Hindu

Introduction 

Nine days after nearly 22 lakh medical aspirants wrote the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the National Testing Agency (NTA) declared on May 12 that the examination had been "compromised" and that a re-test would be conducted. The announcement triggered widespread outrage, with the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) approaching the Supreme Court seeking either the replacement of the NTA or major structural reforms. The episode has renewed scrutiny of the agency's self-proclaimed "Zero Error, Zero Tolerance" policy and its repeated failure to prevent paper leaks.

What Controversies Has NEET Faced Over the Years? 

• The decision to conduct a re-examination for nearly 22 lakh students is unprecedented in NTA's history, yet concerns over paper leaks are far from new. 
• In 2024, the declaration of NEET-UG results coincided with the announcement of national election results. For the first time, 67 out of the top 100 scorers received full marks — a stark contrast to only two students in 2023 and none in 2022. The concentration of full-mark scorers caused massive rank inflation, with multiple aspirants competing for a single MBBS seat in reputed medical colleges. 
• In 2024, 13 lakh students qualified for approximately 1.1 lakh MBBS seats across government and private medical colleges. Allegations of a paper leak surfaced, with investigations revealing that 155 students had allegedly benefited from leaked question papers. Students demanded a re-examination, but their request was not acted upon.

Why Has NTA's 'Zero Error' Promise Fallen Short? 

• With paper leak cases resurfacing year after year, the NTA appears not to have learnt from its troubled past. 
• Following the 2024 debacle, IAS officer Subodh Kumar Singh, then Director General of the NTA, was removed from the post and transferred to the Ministry of Steel as Additional Secretary. He is currently serving as Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. After his transfer, the NTA remained without a full-time chief for over a year, with retired 1985-batch IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola holding "additional interim charge." 
• Despite a change in leadership and a "Zero Error, Zero Tolerance" policy declaration, the agency's overhaul remained largely cosmetic. After the NEET-UG 2026 examination was conducted on May 3, the NTA publicly highlighted the "smooth manner" in which the exam had been held across 5,432 centres, with 22.79 lakh candidates appearing. It claimed that more than two lakh personnel were involved in conducting the examination, and stated that end-to-end secure handling of confidential materials, GPS-enabled vehicles with police escorts, CCTV surveillance at all examination centres (up to 1,50,000 feeds), mandatory frisking through high-sensitivity metal detectors, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication, and real-time monitoring through centralised control systems were all in place. The NTA also stated that 120 Telegram channels circulating fake question papers and rumours had been blocked. 
• Despite these measures, investigations by the Rajasthan Police revealed that a "guess paper" containing 120 out of 410 questions from the final examination had allegedly been circulating for nearly a month before the exam — a massive lapse in oversight by the NTA.

What Did the Radhakrishnan Panel Recommend? 

• Following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, the Ministry of Education formed a high-level committee headed by former ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan. However, the committee's recommendations were not followed in letter and spirit by either the NTA or the Ministry. 
• The report, submitted in October 2024, highlighted the pen-and-paper testing (PPT) model as a "major security risk" and recommended a transition to Computer-Based Testing (CBT) format — similar to the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, which is also conducted by the NTA. 
• The committee also recommended Computer-assisted Secure PPT, where encrypted papers are delivered digitally to exam centres and printed locally just before the test. NTA has made no claim of implementing it. Instead, it relied on GPS vehicles and police escorts. 
• Shifting NEET to CBT mode is acknowledged to be a "high-level ministry call" involving both the Ministries of Health and Education, and the NTA's current capacity to conduct CBT tests stands at only about 1.5 lakh students in a day. In 2024, the NTA floated a tender to increase its computer lab capacity, but the process could not be finalised. In 2026, the NTA has around 552 CBT centres, which are primarily used for JEE and CUET examinations. Since the Radhakrishnan Committee report came out in 2024, the NTA has not been able to augment its infrastructure to add more centres. 
• Multiple proposals to administer NEET-UG exams online were sent to the Ministry of Education, but in vain. Officials at the NTA told The Hindu: "Talks for administering the NEET-UG in CBT mode have been going on for at least five years now. The recent paper leak fiasco should serve as an eye-opener to change the format of the exams."

Conclusion 

The NEET-UG 2026 controversy lays bare the structural frailty of India's largest medical entrance examination. Despite a change in leadership, a high-profile "Zero Error" pledge, and elaborate security arrangements, a guess paper allegedly circulated for nearly a month before the exam without detection. The Radhakrishnan Committee's recommendation to shift to Computer-Based Testing — the most credible reform on the table — remains unimplemented, blocked by infrastructure constraints and inter-ministerial inertia. Until institutional accountability is enforced and systemic reform is prioritised over optics, NEET's credibility will remain vulnerable to repeat crises.