NEET CBT shift stalled by NTA-NMC differences amid repeated paper leak controversies

New Delhi: Although the recommendation for shifting the NEET examination to a computer-based mode has been under consideration for a while, the contradictory positions held by the National Testing Agency (NTA) under the Union Education Ministry and the National Medical Commission (NMC) under the Union Health Ministry have reportedly remained as the main hurdle.

Economic Times has reported that the issue was thoroughly examined by an informal Group of Ministers after the paper leak controversy surrounding the NEET-UG 2024 examination. Back then, the Group of Ministers ultimately concluded that shifting NEET-UG to CBT mode was necessary. The year 2026 was set as the deadline to achieve this goal, keeping the feasibility and logistical issues in mind. 

However, these issues could not be addressed before this year's NEET exam, and now the UG medical entrance examination is facing yet another paper leak scandal. NTA has now cancelled the exam, held on May 3, 2026, and a re-test has been ordered to be conducted in June.

Also Read: Sikar coaching hub emerges as alleged nerve centre in NEET 2026 paper leak case, CBI probes coaching links, medical admissions

Commenting on the issue regarding holding NEET in CBT mode, NTA director general Abhishek Singh told Economic Times that the agency was already conducting JEE Main in CBT mode and could hold NEET in this mode as well "if the health ministry wants".

The daily has reported that, considering there was consensus at the GoM meeting to shift the exam to CBT mode, and also taking into account that the Health Ministry had lifted its objections in 2024 to conduct the exam in CBT mode, its subsequent resistance to a similar format for NEET-UG indicates that reservations and differences between NTA and NMC continued.

Reportedly, the differences between these two bodies were so significant that the issue was not even taken up with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to work on a cybersecurity mechanism for such a plan. However, after the 2024 fiasco, considerable work was undertaken to explore the possibility of a CBT-based NEET-UG format.

According to the assessments made after 2024, holding NEET for 2.2 million candidates would require more than 20-30 shifts spread across a month or more.

Around 13 lakh students annually appear for the JEE Main examination, which is conducted twice a year, with each segment of the test spread over nearly 10 days with two shifts daily. Considering that the NEET exam is currently held in a single day and a single shift, spreading it across more than 20 sessions is considered challenging by the NMC.

Apart from this, such a CBT NEET exam would require nearly 20 different question papers, which could prove to be a major challenge. Due to this, NTA would also be compelled to considerably increase its current CBT testing capacity of 1.25 lakh candidates a day, which could be a major infrastructural challenge.

A multi-shift exam format could lead to a legal challenge because normalisation compromises uniformity. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Supreme Court, while considering a similar issue in the NEET PG examination, had directed the National Board of Examinations to hold the exam in a single shift to avoid the "arbitrariness" arising out of different difficulty level in a multiple shift exam.

Even though the Supreme Court did not directly refer to the NEET-UG exam, it seems to have helped strengthen the original position of NMC favouring the continuation of a single-day, single-shift pen-and-paper exam- a stance which the health ministry overruled in 2024. Therefore, the matter remains without any solution, even though officials have underlined that the NTA's stated mandate is to conduct entrance tests in 'online mode'.

The opposition position between NTA and NMC goes back to 2018- just months after NTA was set up to take over entrance exams. Back then, both the Health Ministry and NMC had reportedly favoured the pen-and-paper format, citing the digital divide along with cybersecurity challenges in a CBT test.

Previously, when the Education Ministry and NTA strongly favoured holding a biannual CBT format for NEET UG in 2018, the Health Ministry had opposed it, citing that it could increase pressure on students and put those from rural areas at a disadvantage due to the digital divide.

Also Read: Amid paper leak probe, hybrid model for NEET under consideration: Report