NEET 2026: SC to hear OMR plea as NTA's 90-day record retention period ends
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: Taking cognisance of the concern over the National Testing Agency's deadline for destroying relevant records of the NEET-UG 2026 examination after the expiry of the 90-day retention period, the Supreme Court recently allowed an urgent listing of a plea challenging an OMR answer sheet in the exam.
The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi agreed to list the matter on Thursday after the counsel for the petitioner sought an urgent hearing, citing the imminent deadline. The plea will be taken up by a top court bench headed by Justice P S Narasimha.
According to a Business Standard report, the counsel for the petitioner submitted before the Apex Court that the answer sheet was under challenge and the NTA was likely to destroy the records on Thursday, when the prescribed 90-day period of data retention would expire.
Initially, the Chief Justice had proposed to list the matter on Friday. However, the petitioner's counsel urged for a hearing a day before. The counsel contended that the matter could become infructuous if the original records were destroyed before the Court could examine the challenge.
After taking note of this submission, the top court bench sought an explanation for the delay in approaching the Supreme Court. The bench questioned why the petition was not filed earlier even when the examination had been conducted.
In response to the query, the counsel said that the petitioner had pursued the available legal remedies before approaching the Apex Court. It was submitted that the petitioner had first moved the Gujarat High Court, where a division bench of the High Court dismissed the intra-court appeal on October 12.
CJI Surya Kant questioned the basis for the urgency and asked why the NTA would destroy the records on Thursday. In response, the counsel submitted that as per the NTA's rules, records are deleted after 90 days. Referring to this, the counsel pointed out that the results for NEET-UG 2026 were declared on July 16 and therefore, Thursday was the final day of the retention period.
After considering the submissions, the Apex Court bench agreed to list the petition on Thursday.
