The Supreme Court on Friday refused an urgent hearing on a petition challenging the re-conduct of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2026 after a set of candidates claimed heightened anxiety and stress around allegations affecting the integrity of the examinations and the lack of preparation time for the Sunday examination.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said, “We will not entertain any request for urgent hearing,” while responding to a request for urgent listing of a petition filed by 11 NEET aspirants who claimed to have received representations espousing demands to reschedule the re-NEET of June 21.
Advocate Adeel Ahmed, who appeared for the petitioners, told the court that they are not against the re-NEET but they are under extreme stress and anxiety over the recent developments. Ahmed said, “Candidates are under severe stress and anxiety. There are rumours of paper leak affecting the integrity of the re-NEET exam as well.” He stated that students expressed concerns that the preparation time was short since the re-examination date was announced on short notice.
The CJI said, “We know how judicial platforms are being used,” as it directed the petition to come up along with other petitions over the alleged NEET paper leak in July.
The petition stated that the candidates are already under mental trauma due to the abrupt cancellation of the previous examination — held on May 3 — by the National Testing Agency (NTA). “A re-examination within a span of approximately five weeks has caused widespread psychological distress, uncertainty, disruption of academic schedules and severe prejudice to candidates across the country,” the petition said.
“Many candidates had already disengaged from their preparation following the completion of the original examination and were subsequently required to restart preparation for an extensive syllabus under conditions of uncertainty and anxiety,” it added.
It further added that the uncertainty surrounding the re-examination process remained even at the stage of issuing and downloading admit cards as several candidates have not been able to do so due to technical glitches, server errors, login failures, website timeouts among other factors. “Such circumstances further demonstrate that the examination process has remained uncertain and stressful till the very eve of the scheduled examination,” the petition said.
Following the NTA decision to cancel the NEET(UG) examination on May 10, the top court had entertained petitions filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and United Doctors Front (UDF) seeking a reconsideration of the effectiveness of NTA and the need for an independent oversight over the conduct of professional entrance to MBBS admissions, considering the fact that the NEET-UG 2026 examination was attempted by over 2.27 million students this year desiring to be medical doctors.
