Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on announced that the NEET UG examination will shift to a computer-based format from next year following the massive controversy surrounding the alleged paper leak in the 2026 medical entrance exam.
The announcement came shortly after the government confirmed that the NEET UG 2026 re-examination will be conducted on June 21 after the original exam held on May 3 was cancelled over allegations of irregularities and question paper leaks.
Addressing the media, the Education Minister said the decision to move NEET into a digital format was part of a larger effort to strengthen transparency, fairness and security in one of India’s biggest entrance examinations.
Pradhan also announced relief measures for students appearing in the re-exam, stating that candidates will receive an additional 15 minutes to fill their OMR sheets. He further assured aspirants that no extra examination fee would be charged for the fresh test.
The minister confirmed that the Central Bureau of Investigation has been tasked with conducting a detailed investigation into the alleged paper leak and related irregularities.
Explaining how the controversy unfolded, Pradhan said complaints were first received regarding a so-called “guess paper” that allegedly matched several questions appearing in the actual examination.
“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,” the minister said.
According to him, the Higher Education Department immediately launched an internal inquiry and coordinated with central and state investigating agencies to verify the allegations.
“By May 12, we were confirmed that, under the guise of a guess paper, the actual examination questions had indeed been leaked,” he stated.
Defending the cancellation of the exam, the Union minister said the government did not want honest and deserving students to suffer because of organised cheating networks and unfair practices.
“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,” Pradhan said.
The cancellation of the NEET examination had created massive uncertainty among lakhs of medical aspirants and parents across the country, many of whom had been demanding clarity over admissions and the future examination schedule.
The minister also referred to recommendations made earlier by the Radhakrishnan Committee, which was formed after previous examination controversies. According to Pradhan, the committee’s suggestions had already been 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 added.
