Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday announced that the NEET UG examination will shift to a computer-based format from 2027, following the controversy over an alleged paper leak in this year’s medical entrance test.
Addressing the media after the government confirmed the re-examination date, Pradhan said the move was part of broader efforts to strengthen the integrity and transparency of one of India’s largest entrance tests. He also announced that the Central B
ureau of Investigation will conduct a comprehensive probe into the alleged irregularities to get to the root of the paper leak.
Live | Addressing the Press Conference https://t.co/m1sFjoxiTH
— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) May 15, 2026
The National Testing Agency has rescheduled the NEET UG 2026 re-examination for June 21, after the original exam held on May 3 was cancelled. Pradhan confirmed that no fee will be charged to students for the re-examination, and that candidates will be given an additional 15 minutes to fill out the OMR sheet.
How the Leak Came to Light
Pradhan outlined the sequence of events that led to the cancellation. The exam was conducted on May 3. Four days later, on May 7, the NTA received a complaint that a circulating “guess paper” contained questions that matched those in the actual examination paper.
“The exam took place on May 3 and on May 7, NTA received a complaint that the guess paper had some questions that were present in the question sheets this time,” Pradhan said.
The Higher Education Department immediately launched an inquiry and referred the matter to investigating agencies. State agencies were also contacted during the process. By May 12, authorities had confirmed that the actual examination questions had been leaked under the cover of a guess paper.
Government Defends Cancellation
Pradhan defended the decision to scrap the examination, saying the government was unwilling to let deserving students be disadvantaged by organised malpractice.
“We did not want any deserving student to be deprived of their rights due to the machinations of fraudulent candidates or the conspiracies of the education mafia,” he said.
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The cancellation triggered widespread anxiety among lakhs of medical aspirants and parents across the country, many of whom had been seeking clarity on admissions and the path ahead.
Radhakrishnan Committee Reforms Were Already in Place
Pradhan also noted that the government had previously constituted the Radhakrishnan Committee following concerns over irregularities in earlier entrance examinations. Its recommendations were implemented for both the 2025 and 2026 examinations.
“Despite implementing the recommendations word for word, this incident still occurred. Hence, our first decision was to cancel the examination,” he said.