Supreme Court Pulls Up System Over NEET Chaos, Seeks Accountability Fix
New Delhi, May 29: The Hon’ble Supreme Court on Thursday came down heavily on the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre over recurring controversies surrounding NEET-UG examinations, stressing that unless clear accountability is fixed on specific officials and systems, such failures would continue to haunt lakhs of students and their families.
Hearing a PIL filed by the over NEET-UG and NTA-related issues, the apex court raised serious concerns over institutional reforms, monitoring mechanisms and the absence of continuity within the examination system.
Solicitor General informed the Bench that affidavits had been filed by Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, who headed the High-Powered Committee formed after the 2024 NEET controversy, along with the Director (Legal), NTA, detailing the status of implementation of the committee’s recommendations.
The Court questioned how irregularities could still surface despite the implementation of the committee’s recommendations and observed that either the recommendations themselves were inadequate or monitoring had failed.
Dr. K. Radhakrishnan told the Court that most of the nearly 60 recommendations had already been implemented while a few remained under process.
He maintained that NEET-UG 2025 was conducted satisfactorily except for isolated incidents such as power failures at some centres.
He also informed the Bench that coordination with state governments and district administrations had been strengthened to ensure secure conduct of examinations.
In a sharp observation, the Supreme Court said the “real problem” would persist unless responsibility was fixed on identifiable duty holders.
The Bench remarked that when accountability becomes “diffused”, institutional failures become difficult to address.
The Court also noted that examinations like NEET carry the emotions, sacrifices and years of hard work not only of students but of entire families, calling such incidents “very traumatic” for aspirants.
The Bench further flagged “adhocism” within institutions and stressed the need for institutional memory, continuity of human resources and permanent expert-driven mechanisms within the NTA. It observed that strong institutions — and not merely individuals — were necessary to ensure credibility and transparency in national examinations.
The Solicitor General submitted that the Government of India was deeply concerned about students and informed the Court that new mechanisms had been introduced for upcoming re-examinations, though details could not be disclosed publicly for security reasons.
He also informed the Court that Prime Minister was personally supervising the matter.
The Supreme Court has now directed the Union Government through the Ministry of Education to file a detailed affidavit outlining the future framework for conducting examinations, including measures for institutional continuity, expert participation and safeguards to prevent a repeat of controversies similar to NEET-UG 2024 and 2026.
The matter has been listed for hearing in the second week of July 2026.
