SC refuses urgent hearing on NEET-UG pleas
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to accord urgent hearing on two separate pleas related to the NEET-UG 2026 re-test, which is scheduled for June 21.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice V Mohana said these petitions would be heard by a bench headed by Justice P S Narasimha in July, when the apex court will resume normal functioning after the partial court working days.
“All NEET matters will go before Justice Narasimha’s bench,” the CJI said when one of the lawyers mentioned the matter for urgent listing.
On May 12, the National Testing Agency (NTA) had cancelled the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, held on May 3 for medical admissions amid allegations of paper leak.
The CBI is currently investigating the matter, and a re-test is scheduled for June 21.
Advocate Adeel Ahmed mentioned a separate petition filed by students and NEET-UG aspirants before the bench and sought urgent listing.
The top court said the plea would be heard by a Justice Narasimha-led bench, which is already seized of petitions related to the exam.
The plea has sought a direction to the Centre and others to reconsider the feasibility of conducting the examination on June 21 after taking into account the representations of aspirants.
It said the petitioners have collected and placed on record a compilation of representations received from aspirants belonging to multiple states and Union Territories across the country.
“The representations disclose a remarkable uniformity of concerns, including mental trauma, severe anxiety, uncertainty arising from cancellation of the original examination, inadequate preparation time, apprehensions concerning examination integrity, clashes with other examinations, logistical difficulties and adverse effects on mental health,” the plea said.
It said the decision to conduct a fresh examination was not under challenge and the grievance of petitioners was confined to the “arbitrary and unreasonable fixation” of the re-test date without affording adequate preparation time to candidates.
The plea said abrupt cancellation of the original examination and the subsequent announcement of the re-test date resulted in widespread uncertainty and psychological distress amongst candidates.
It said the “atmosphere surrounding the re-examination has been marked by repeated circulation of alleged paper leak claims, purported leaked question papers, social media rumours and widespread misinformation, requiring repeated responses and clarifications from the authorities themselves”.
“Public reports have highlighted serious mental-health consequences amongst NEET aspirants following the cancellation and controversy surrounding the examination process, including reports of suicides by aspirants,” the plea said. It has also sought a direction to the authorities to postpone and reschedule the re-NEET-UG 2026 examination after providing a reasonable preparation period to all affected candidates.
While hearing a batch of separate pleas related to NEET-UG 2026, the top court on May 29 stressed that the real problem relating to the medical entrance examination would not stop till “actual accountability arises”.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had then told the apex court that the government was seriously concerned about the concerns of the youths and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally supervising the situation so that “there is no lacunae”.
Mehta had also said that some new mechanisms have been put in place for the NEET-UG re-test scheduled for June 21.
