Delayed NEET results worry aspirants, medics say NTA must admit slips, correct course

Academics in medical education have blamed the National Testing Agency (NTA) for being negligent in ensuring robust infrastructure and basic facilities for aspirants at examination halls. Students who did well in the examinations, on the other hand, have raised concerns over the delay in the declaration of exam results and counselling, and a late start to the academic year.

Also read: Madras HC stays NEET-UG-2025 result over power outage at Chennai centre

High Court order

The Madras High Court recently issued an interim stay on the release of NEET-UG 2025 results following a petition by 13 students from an examination centre in Chennai’s Avadi. The students reported significant disruptions during the May 4, 2025, exam, including a power outage from 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm and rainwater entering the exam hall at PM Shri Kendriya Vidyalaya CRPF-Avadi. The petitioners said these conditions forced them to write in poor lighting and relocate mid-exam, while they were provided no extra time.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court also recently ordered NTA to withhold results for 11 examination centres in Indore, which were affected by a power cut on exam day. The decision came after a petition was filed by a student who claimed her NEET-UG exam was disrupted due to the outage.

Who vets, picks exam centres?

While the NTA conducts thorough candidate checks to ensure exam integrity, the responsibility for infrastructural failures like power outages and water leakage is also entrusted to multiple stakeholders.

The NTA’s internal team, including its director general and operational staff, oversees the selection process for examination centres. The agency collaborates with government and educational institutions to identify suitable centres.

The NTA also engages third-party organisations to conduct background checks and audits of potential exam centres to ensure they meet required standards. These agencies evaluate infrastructure, security, and management to finalise the list of centres.

The exam centres are expected to undergo virtual tours and physical inspections to verify facilities like classrooms, seating, lighting, ventilation, and security measures (e.g. CCTV, guarded strong rooms).

‘Responsibility, fault lie with NTA’

Medical education experts, however, say that the agency is the final authority that is responsible for ensuring the availability of basic amenities and other facilities at the examination centres, and thus must take the blame for any lapses like the recent ones.

“NTA is a very reputable statutory body that conducts NEET-UG. It is a lifetime ambition of a student to crack the exam. The central agency body is not looking at the basic facilities, and this only shows negligence in the conduct of the medical education entrance examination. The testing agency has to ensure that all the facilities are available," said Dr M Mithun, former national joint secretary of the Indian Medical Association-Medical Students Network National.

Also read: NEET-UG held at over 5,400 centres; sporadic incidents of protest, arrest

Akshaya Mariya, a NEET aspirant who wrote the exam this year, said that even her exam centre in Vandalur, Chennai, experienced a power cut, but it was restored within five to 10 minutes as there was a backup facility available.

“Had such arrangements been made at all the centres, such an issue could have been avoided. The issue of stay by the Madras High Court has caused unnecessary worries among medical aspirants. It is making us anxious," she told The Federal.

Medics The Federal spoke to said it is high time the NTA took responsibility for these lapses and employed strategies to avoid them in the future.

‘Compensation the way forward’

While the affected students look at re-test as a possible solution, the others fear the high court stay will delay the result and the counselling, and the academic year in the process. Medicos say that it is stressful for the students to reappear for the exam or to even go to court. They said the entire incident is reflective of a huge lapse in the system that NTA follows.

Raising the issue of the delay in the result declaration, another medical aspirant, Amrita, says that there are a lot of predictions on cut-offs, results, and misinformation being put out by YouTubers and other ‘experts’. “This is adding to the confusion. There was a delay in the academic year last year because of multiple irregularities, a re-exam for selected centres, and late counselling. NTA should avoid that this year," she says.

Also read: NTA flags 'fake' info on NEET-UG paper leaks in Telegram, Instagram channels

Dr Mithun says a re-test, even if it is only for the affected students, wouldn’t be the ideal solution, and there are other compensatory ways that can be worked out.

“In case of a re-exam, the question paper would be different, and it would not be an ideal solution, given that it will be unfair for the ones who have written the examination already. There can be other compensatory ways to make up for the lapse for these students from this particular centre," he tells The Federal.

Re-tests in 2022, 2024

Last year, a NEET re-exam was held across seven centres in the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Meghalaya, and the Union Territory of Chandigarh after several irregularities, such as alleged paper leaks, emergence of multiple toppers from the same centre, and other issues surfaced. As many as 1,563 candidates were eligible to appear for the re-test, but only 813 had appeared for the re-exam.

In 2022, the NEET-UG 2022 re-test was held at two centres in Rajasthan, two in Madhya Pradesh, and one in Uttar Pradesh, as the students were affected during the frisking process, as they were ordered to remove their undergarments as part of the NTA’s frisking process.

Also read: NTA 'lapses' in NEET-UG 2024: SC closes case as Centre says it will implement reforms

Call for course-correction

Dr GR Ravindranath, general secretary of the Doctors' Association for Social Equality, says that NTA must take responsibility for the lapses in the system and understand that such incidents need to be avoided in the future. “A re-test should be conducted in this case so the students are treated fairly as it impacts their career," Ravindranath says.

Stating that the NTA needs to modify the overall system of the examination after the concerns were raised by the students, Supreme Court advocate Satyam Singh Rajput said the agency usually doesn’t take responsibility until the court issues orders for a re-exam, but there is a chance that the court would ask to conduct a re-exam or offer compensation to the affected candidates.

Also read: NEET-UG leak: How half-burnt paper led CBI to 144 students, school ‘conspiracy’

"NTA has become questionable after the NET-UGC examination also saw irregularities, and the NEET exam had multiple concerns last year as well. The exam was held for more than 2.5 lakh students, and it is very lax of NTA not to have basic power backup. The students do not have an option but to opt for the examination," he added.