New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled out a public interest litigation challenging the National Testing Agency’s cancellation of the original NEET UG 2026 exam and its decision to hold a nationwide retest, saying the petition had become moot because the fresh examination has already taken place.
A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe told the petitioner’s counsel that the re examination rendered the challenge infructuous. When the lawyer asked that the plea — which also sought broad institutional reforms at the NTA — be tagged with other pending matters, the court said the petitioner could seek to intervene in those cases.
The PIL, filed by Dr Mangala Kohli, a former Assistant Director General of Health Services, argued the NTA’s May 3 cancellation following allegations of paper leaks and irregularities unfairly affected millions of bona fide candidates. It contended evidence pointed to a “localised operational compromise” by organised networks rather than systemic contamination of the exam nationwide, and said the decision to order a retest imposed severe academic, mental and financial hardship on roughly 22 lakh aspirants while disrupting the medical admissions cycle.
Beyond asking that the cancellation be set aside, the petition pressed for structural reforms at the NTA: independent oversight, stronger security protocols and technology led safeguards such as encrypted question delivery, biometric checks and AI assisted monitoring.
The NTA went ahead with the re examination on June 21 under tightened security. Officials said over 20 lakh candidates sat the test at 5,440 centres in India and 14 centres abroad, supported by nearly 7 lakh staff, police and observers. Authorities reported real time monitoring of more than 95,000 exam rooms via about 1.38 lakh CCTV cameras, deployment of over 51,000 signal jammers and use of Aadhaar based biometric verification, facial authentication and two layer frisking to prevent malpractice.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice Surya Kant had declined urgent hearing after the matter was mentioned to him, noting that NEET UG cases were already before the Narasimha bench and would be listed there. With the fresh exam completed, the Supreme Court declined to keep this PIL pending while leaving open the petitioner’s option to join ongoing proceedings that consider institutional reforms.
(Inputs from IANS)