NEET UG 2026: Six students move SC alleging OMR sheet discrepancies
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohan agreed to list the plea for hearing
Six students who appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) 2026 have approached the Supreme Court alleging discrepancies in the OMR sheets they originally marked and the ones uploaded by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The students of NEET UG have secured scores above 600 and 650 marks but claim that the OMR sheets now reflected by the NTA differ from what they had actually marked during the examination, Live Law reported on Tuesday (August 4).
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The students’ counsel sought an urgent hearing of the matter before the commencement of the counselling process.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohan agreed to list the plea for hearing.
"This writ petition concerns the NEET examination. There are six students who have alleged that what they originally marked in the OMR sheets and what the NTA is now giving them are different," the counsel submitted.
NTA's advisory
Last month, some NEET-UG 2026 candidates and parents alleged mismatches between expected and declared scores. The allegations spread rapidly on social media and were picked up by the Opposition parties for questioning the credibility of the NTA, which has already faced considerable flak over paper leak allegations.
Amid this, the NTA issued an advisory to candidates and their parents, warning them not to submit fake or AI-generated OMR sheets when raising complaints about score discrepancies.
“The NTA is closely monitoring and scrutinising all complaints. In the wake of many OMR sheets submitted for scrutiny turning out to be fake/AI-generated, students and parents are advised to submit only original OMR sheets for scrutiny. Any fake/AI-generated OMR sheet may invite legal action against the complainant,” the NTA said in the advisory.
NEET retest
On May 12, the NTA cancelled NEET-UG held on May 3, amid allegations of paper leak. The retest was held on June 21.
The results for the national medical entrance examination were announced on July 16, with 11.21 lakh candidates qualifying the test.
The paper leak allegations are under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
After questions of NEET-UG were allegedly leaked in 2024, the top court had refused to cancel the test, but passed various directions aimed at tackling paper leaks and also a criterion for cancelling public exams.