After NEET Paper Leak Row, Parliamentary Panel Recommends Holding Medical Entrance Exams Multiple Times Annually | Education and Career News
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The Parliamentary panel has proposed holding NEET-UG two or three times a year so that students have multiple opportunities to clear the exam.
The NTA has announced that the NEET UG 2026 re-exam will be conducted on June 21, 2026.
Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday recommended that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) be held multiple times a year to ease pressure on students and ensure they do not lose an entire academic year, reported ANI.
Sources told the news agency the committee discussed the recent NEET-UG paper leak controversy and was briefed by officials from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the National Medical Commission (NMC) on the sequence of events, inquiries conducted so far, and measures taken in response to the alleged breach.
The Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare met to hear the views of officials on the ‘Conduct of NEET examinations under NMC Act, 2019’ as part of its detailed examination of the subject ‘Organisational Structure, Mandate and Functional Proficiency of Regulatory Institutions pertaining to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’.
NTA Director General Abhishek Singh, Higher Education Secretary Vineet Joshi and NMC Chairman Abhijat C Sheth were among those who presented their views. The committee is headed by Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav.
This was the third time in recent weeks that government officials appeared before parliamentary panels in connection with the cancellation of the NEET-UG examination held in May following allegations of a paper leak. The exam has been rescheduled for June 21.
NEET-UG, India’s largest medical entrance examination, is currently conducted once a year in a single sitting. The test held on May 3 this year was cancelled after allegations of a paper leak.
A key concern raised by MPs was the recurring nature of such incidents, sources said. Members are learnt to have noted that similar controversies had arisen in 2024 and again in 2026, raising questions about accountability and whether existing punitive measures are sufficient to prevent future breaches.
“All the MPs discussed the need to move forward on this because it is not a one-time issue, it has become a recurring problem. Since it happened in 2024 and again in 2026, the question is who is accountable for it, how accountability should be fixed, and whether the punishment is sufficient to ensure such incidents do not happen again,” a source said.
According to sources, members also proposed holding NEET-UG two or three times a year so that students have multiple opportunities to clear the exam and do not suffer due to factors beyond their control.
“Members suggested that there should be multiple NEET examinations throughout the year, at least two or three, because when a student misses out on an entire year of education due to somebody else’s fault, it has a very deep impact on the students,” the source said.
Government officials are learnt to have informed the panel that this suggestion would be examined.
Student groups have repeatedly demanded that NEET be held multiple times a year. In July 2018, then Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar announced that the NTA would conduct JEE Main and NEET-UG twice annually. However, this was never implemented.
In 2023, the National Medical Commission stated that holding NEET-UG twice a year would not be feasible as all MBBS seats are filled through a single counselling process.
Officials also told the panel that the government is considering introducing Computer-Based Testing (CBT) for NEET from the next examination cycle. MPs, however, stressed the need for a smooth transition, especially for students from rural areas, pointing to issues of digital access, infrastructure, and the need to provide examination papers in regional languages, the sources said.
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