NEET 2026 retest results by July 20, MBBS academic session won't be delayed: NTA
New Delhi: The National Testing Agency (NTA) will declare the result of the NEET UG 2026 re-examination by July 20, a senior official confirmed, assuring candidates that the revised examination schedule will not delay the commencement of the MBBS academic session.
The official said the agency is working on a war footing to complete the evaluation process and release the results at the earliest. While declining to specify the exact date of declaration, the official said the results would be announced much earlier than the usual timeline despite the re-examination, which was conducted on June 21 after the cancellation of the original May 3 test following the alleged paper leak.
"The result of the re-National Eligibility-Entrance Test (NEET UG) will be announced by July 20," a senior official at the NTA confirmed to ANI.
The official did not provide an exact date but confirmed that the agency is working on a war footing to release the results soon. The official, however, assured that the academic year for MBBS students will not be delayed.
The re-NEET was conducted on June 21 after the cancellation of the May 3 examination for over 20 lakh students over the alleged paper leak.
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"We would not like to give out any date as of now, but the result will be out by July 20. Normally, the results are announced within 45 days of the examination, but this time, as we have conducted the exam in 37 days, we will announce the results much earlier," a senior NTA official told ANI during a telephonic interview.
The NTA had released the provisional answer key on June 25, and candidates were given time till June 28 to challenge it. As per the official, around 10,000 challenges were received from aspirants.
Now, the NTA is working to address the challenges submitted by aspirants. When asked how this process is carried out, the official said:
"We need to scan all the challenges one by one, examine the supporting evidence, and respond to each one of them."
A fee of ₹200 is charged per question and is refunded if the student's challenge is found to be correct.
The official also assured that, despite NEET being conducted again, the academic year will not be delayed, even though there is no clarity yet on the counselling process, which usually takes over one month.
After the NEET-UG result is declared, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) releases the counselling schedule for the 15 per cent All India Quota (AIQ), AIIMS, JIPMER, central and deemed universities, while individual states announce separate schedules for their 85 per cent state quota seats.
Last year, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) released the NEET UG 2025 counselling schedule on July 12-13, 2025, about one week after the NEET UG result was declared. The notification announced that Round 1 registration would begin on July 21, 2025, giving candidates roughly eight days to prepare for counselling.
In a normal NEET year, the first-year MBBS academic session usually starts in August or September, depending on how quickly counselling concludes. The official told ANI that this year, too, the session will begin on time.
Candidates register online, pay the required counselling fee, and fill in and lock their preferred choices of colleges and courses, following which seats are allotted based on NEET rank, category, reservation norms, preferences, and seat availability.
Candidates allotted seats must report to the respective colleges for document verification and admission. The counselling is conducted in multiple rounds--typically Round 1, Round 2, a Mop-up Round, and a Stray Vacancy Round--to fill all available seats before the academic session begins.
Also Read:NEET 2026 Re-Test Final Answer Key, Results Expected Soon
