SC refuses to entertain NEET 2026 OMR discrepancy plea, allows candidates to approach HC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court recently said that it could not entertain a plea filed by six NEET UG 2026 candidates challenging alleged discrepancies in their OMR sheets, as the re-examination had already been conducted and the issue concerning the institutionalisation of the National Testing Agency (NTA) is sub judice.

The bench comprising Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe, however, granted the candidates liberty to approach the Delhi High Court and disposed of the writ petition after hearing the candidates' allegations that the OMR sheets released by the NTA did not match the answers they had actually marked during the examination.

During the hearing, Advocate Sanjeev Malhotra, appearing for the petitioners, said that the candidates were not seeking to interfere with the ongoing NEET UG 2026 counselling process. Their limited request was to obtain access to the OMR sheets so that they could verify the answers recorded by the NTA and the marks awarded to them.

Also read- NEET OMR Sheet Tampering Allegations Need Credible Evidence, Rules Chhattisgarh HC

As per latest Live Law report, the counsel argued that the students have secured scores above 600 and 650 marks, but the OMR sheets differ from what they had actually marked during the examination. He pointed out that NTA provided a window for candidates to raise objections regarding the OMR sheets, but the discrepancy only surfaced after the results were declared.

Considering the submissions, Justice Narasimha said that the candidates could raise their grievances before the Delhi High Court. The Supreme Court did not wish to accept the pleas.

It may be noted that many students have approached different High Courts alleging tampering with the OMR sheets. Medical Dialogues had reported that the Chhattisgarh High Court dismissed a petition filed by a NEET (UG) 2026 candidate who alleged that his OMR answer sheet had been tampered with, resulting in a sharp drop in his score. The Court observed that the petitioner relied only on his own assessment and failed to demonstrate arbitrariness, illegality or procedural irregularity in the evaluation process. It also noted that the candidate had bypassed the available grievance mechanism before filing the writ petition, following which the Court declined to order production of the original OMR sheet or re-evaluation and dismissed the petition.

In July 2026, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court dismissed four petitions challenging the results of the re-NEET 2026 examination and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each petitioner for filing the cases based on incorrect and unverified claims after observing that no mistakes were found in the evaluation or declaration of the results.

The NEET UG 2026 exam was conducted on May 3 by the National Testing Agency and was held from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM in pen-and-paper mode. Over 22.7 lakh aspirants appeared for the examination this year. It took place across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad, covering over 5,400 centres.

However, on May 12, 2026, the NTA declared the examination held on May 3 cancelled due to paper leak controversy and subsequently announced a re-examination on June 21, 2026.

The results for the national medical entrance re-examination were announced on July 16, with 11.21 lakh candidates qualifying the test. 

Also read- No error in re-NEET evaluation: Bombay HC junks petitions, imposes Rs 5k fine on each candidate