No tampering in NEET 2026 retest OMR sheets: Centre tells Delhi HC

New Delhi: Rejecting allegations of large-scale manipulation in the NEET UG 2026 re-examination, the Centre informed the Delhi High Court that there was no tampering with the OMR sheets of candidates who appeared for the re-test.

Appearing in a PIL on the issue, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, before a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, said, "Loose kind of drafting and arguments alleging large-scale tampering in the re-test ought not be allowed as they would set a narrative. There is no tampering in any OMR sheet. None of this has happened. Don't sensationalise."

The court was hearing a PIL filed by two NEET-UG candidates seeking additional marks for themselves as well as "similarly affected candidates" for certain dropped questions, and scrapping of the National Testing Agency (NTA).

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One of the petitioners also alleged that her OMR sheet had been tampered with. The PIL sought the constitution of an expert committee to look into the concerns over irregularities in the examination raised by the petitioners.

At the outset, Mehta stated that the petitioner's case appeared to be of a mismatch between her "rough work" on the question paper and the answer marked on the OMR sheet, and there was no manipulation.

"They say there is tampering with the OMR sheet. Who will tamper," Mehta asked, as reported by PTI. 

The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the issues raised in the plea, including that of tampering with OMR sheets and non-award of marks for dropped questions, concerned thousands of candidates. However, only two of them came forward for filing the plea as others were not permitted by their parents, he stated.

The bench refused to entertain the PIL, stating that it sought relief which could not be granted.

The court said it would consider the issues if any aggrieved student approached it in an individual capacity, and not in a PIL.

"What we find is that it is a mixed bunch of prayers seeking relief for the petitioner and all other candidates. Writ petition with such a mixture of prayers can't be entertained," the court concluded.

The court dismissed the petition as withdrawn, granting one petitioner liberty to file a separate PIL on institutional reforms in public examinations like NEET. The court permitted the second candidate to file a plea regarding her allegations of OMR tampering.

Medical Dialogues had previously reported that the Delhi High Court refused to interfere with the final answer key of the NEET UG 2026 examination on the ground that courts cannot replace the opinion of subject experts unless an answer is clearly and demonstrably wrong,

Justice Jasmeet Singh dismissed a petition filed by 17-year-old NEET candidate, who challenged the answer to Question No. 150 of the Biology section in Test Booklet Code 80.

The court said the National Testing Agency (NTA) had placed objections raised by candidates against the provisional answer key before a panel of subject experts from leading institutions at the national level. After examining the objections, the experts found no reason to change the disputed answer in the final answer key.

Also read- NEET 2026: Delhi HC refuses to interfere with NTA final answer key, backs expert opinion