NEET-UG 2026: cancelled again — the lesson of 2024 unlearned

What happened

NEET-UG 2026, the national medical entrance exam, was held on 3 May 2026 for more than 2.27 million candidates. In the days that followed, a “guess paper” that had circulated on WhatsApp through coaching centres in Sikar, Rajasthan before the exam was compared against the actual question paper — the overlap ran to more than a hundred questions, concentrated in chemistry and biology. On 12 May 2026, the exam was cancelled outright and the CBI took over the investigation from Rajasthan Police.

What the official record shows

The CBI’s arrests included a professor with access to National Testing Agency processes, other teaching staff who allegedly ran special classes on the leaked content, a coaching institute operator, and a school headmistress — an alleged network trading the paper for lakhs of rupees per candidate. A retest for the entire 2.27-million-candidate cohort was held on 21 June 2026, with question papers moved under heightened security, including transport by the Indian Air Force. The government announced a shift of the exam to computer-based format from 2027.

Where it stands

Criminal trials of the arrested accused are pending, and this entry carries the under-investigation label accordingly. What is already documented is institutional: the same national exam, administered by the same agency that the Radhakrishnan committee was appointed to reform after the 2024 leak, was compromised again within two years — at the cost of a lost exam cycle for 2.27 million students.