2 weeks ago
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The Federation of Indian Medical Association (FAIMA) has flagged the “recurring, systemic, and catastrophic” nonaccomplishment of the National Testing Agency (NTA) successful conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) and has urged the Supreme Court to instrumentality a “stricter approach”.
The NTA “casually” ignored recommendations of the Radhakrishnan Committee and the apical court’s directions aft the 2024 leak. “Mechanism should beryllium successful spot to guarantee that immoderate non-compliances volition pb to exemplary penalties,” FAIMA said successful a petition.
FAIMA said “repeated integer breaches” and “administrative paralysis” successful the NTA that origin aggregate insubstantial leaks warrant that the Supreme Court should invoke its bonzer jurisdiction nether Article 142, which it had earlier utilized to “strip the Medical Council of India of its autarkic argumentation making powers”.
The petition wanted the apex tribunal to “step successful and bid the instauration of a modern, foolproof, and transparent strategy truthful that the futures of millions of students are ne'er enactment astatine hazard again”.
Over-reliance connected vendors
The petition said NTA relies heavy connected unverified backstage work providers for logistics, including centre absorption and security, funnelling nationalist funds into lowest bidder infrastructure contempt repeated warnings against it by Parliamentary Standing Committees and the apex tribunal erstwhile it heard the NEET UG 2024 insubstantial leak case.
It said that the apical tribunal had pointed retired lapses successful NTA’s strategy successful 2024. These included unauthorised entree to strongrooms, proscription of highly delicate introspection materials connected e-rickshaws and done backstage couriers, the lack of immoderate prescribed clip bounds for the submission of OMR sheets, and a implicit deficiency of nonstop oversight implicit the invigilators.
In 2024, the rear doorway of a strongroom successful Hazaribagh was opened and unauthorised persons were permitted to entree the question papers earlier the exam. “Despite these lapses being explicitly pointed retired by SC, the NTA has failed to instrumentality meaningful corrective action,” FAIMA said.
“NTA continues to trust connected risky, old-fashioned methods similar physically printing question papers and utilizing backstage couriers for transport making it prone to leak,” the petition said, adding, “It is besides excessively babelike on third parties to outsource the absorption of exam centers and to the transport of exam materials thereby destroying the secrecy of this examination.”
Future leaks
The petition said that attempting to re-conduct NEET-UG 2026 utilizing the nonstop aforesaid flawed methods and backstage contractors, without archetypal implementing the Radhakrishnan Committee’s information measures, is “highly irresponsible”. “It practically guarantees that different insubstantial leak volition happen, causing further trauma to the students,” it said.
In 2024, the Supreme Court had cautioned that the NTA, which is entrusted with the behaviour of competitory exams, cannot spend missteps and past course-correct later. Flip-flops are an anathema to fairness, it had said.
The petition said that though NTA had assured candidates that the exam process volition not beryllium tampered with, it had to cancel NEET-UG 2026.
“Such contradictory and reactive administrative behaviour demonstrates lack of organization preparedness, deficiency of liable decision-making, and implicit nonaccomplishment to support the grade of certainty, and fairness which were expected from a nationalist introspection assemblage entrusted with the aboriginal of lakhs of students,” the petition said.
Cosmetic upgrades
While the Radhakrishnan Committee suggested that the NTA upgrade its logistics, retention and proscription protocols, the NTA continued to trust connected a massive, outdated carnal concatenation of custody. It did not modulation to a unafraid and encrypted integer transportation system.
“By irresponsibly outsourcing these captious duties to lowest-bidder backstage contractors and unverified logistical partners, the NTA near the question papers wholly exposed. This full nonaccomplishment successful carnal information allowed criminals to easy access, copy, and administer the insubstantial agelong earlier the exam date,” the petition said.
The NTA’s claimed technological upgrades, specified arsenic GPS tracking and 5G jammers, were “useless and cosmetic”. “These leaks are happening for years present which proves that the lack of a resilient and transparent mechanics wrong the existent NTA framework,” FAIMA said.
Lack of enforcement
The repeated occurrence of introspection leaks demonstrates nonaccomplishment of enforcement contempt the enactment of the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. The authorities strengthened anti-paper leak measures done the Act, nether which organised insubstantial leak rackets tin look up to 10 years successful prison, yet this authorities has proved woefully inadequate successful the lack of immoderate preventive organization architecture to enforce it proactively, the petition said.
This Act is purely punitive successful nature providing remedies lone aft a leak has occurred and contains nary proviso for a imperishable autarkic assemblage to proactively audit, monitor, and forestall leaks.
“State cannot repeatedly betray this expectation, cancel examinations post-facto, bid CBI probes, and instrumentality to the aforesaid defective strategy for the adjacent cycle. Such a signifier of behaviour is not simply negligent it is simply a law failure,” the petition said.
“The recurrence of an adjacent larger compromise successful 2026 (as compared to 2024 leak) demonstrates ‘institutional incapacity’ alternatively than ‘accidental failure’,” FAIMA said.
“In airy of specified a systemic collapse, the specified cancellation of the exam is simply a ‘band-aid’ solution to a ‘surgical’ problem. There is an urgent request for SC to workout its bonzer jurisdiction nether Article 32 to laic down strict, imperishable guidelines for transparency and integer security.”
