NEET paper leak: Parliamentary committee to examine integrity of exams, reforms
New Delhi: Amid the questions being raised over the integrity of the national examination process after the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak, a Parliamentary panel is set to examine the issue of the integrity of national examinations and deliberate upon the need for reforms in the public examination system.
On this issue, the previous parliamentary panel had noted that the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026 examination despite all measures showed the requirement for greater procedural and institutional reforms.
According to a PTI report, the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports will also review the functioning of coaching centres and examine the regulations, their enforcement and compliance. The committee was reconstituted in September for a period of one year and has selected its subjects for 2026-27.
According to a Lok Sabha bulletin, the panel will also review the progress of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
The panel would also review the functioning and performance of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), including affiliation, regulation, examination conduct and overseas ventures, and the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).
It would examine student welfare and support systems in school education, including health, safety, mental well-being, inclusive education and grievance redressal mechanisms.
The panel would also review the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the leverage of emerging technologies on education and students’ employability, and a review of the implementation of related UGC regulations and guidelines on internationalisation of higher education.
The NEET-UG 2026 paper leak has raised a big question on the integrity of the national examinations. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that while examining the role of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the wake of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) paper leak and cancellation of the examination, a Parliamentary Standing Committee in its report called for a legislative mechanism in order to ensure the agency's accountability to both Houses of Parliament.
In its 382nd report on "Reforms and Strengthening of the National Testing Agency (NTA)", a Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, observed that NTA bears unique and critical responsibilities in India's education architecture.
The panel observed that under the National Education Policy 2020, NTA has the responsibility of conducting all of India’s most significant public examinations such as JEE-Mains, NEET-UG, UGC-NET, and CUET, among others and therefore acts as the gateway for the higher education system.
Noting that the successful conduct of an all-India exam like NEET requires a whole-of-government mobilization across departments at the Union, State, and local government level, the panel has recommended that the Education Department may introduce appropriate Parliamentary framework for ensuring NTA's accountability to Parliament.
The Committee recognised that the NTA has made progress since the 2024 paper irregularities. It called the institutional linkages with State governments, the Aadhaar-based biometric authentication, the CCTV monitoring with AI analysis, the mobile jammers, and the government-only examination centers as improvements.
However, referring to the cancellation of NEET-UG 2026, the panel observed in its report that further improvement is necessary. "On the contrary, the organised networks that profit from examination fraud are adaptive and resourceful, who will always seek the weakest link in the chain. The NTA therefore needs adequate staff, robust security protocols, clear accountability mechanisms, and digitalization of operations and examinations to ensure that it stays ahead of any challenges," noted the panel.
