The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant urgent hearing on two separate petitions related to the NEET-UG 2026 re-test scheduled on June 21.
A Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said all the petitions related to NEET-UG examination would be heard by a Bench led by Justice PS Narasimha in July.
“All NEET matters will go before Justice (PS) Narasimha’s bench,” the CJI said when advocate Adeel Ahmed mentioned a separate petition filed by students and NEET-UG aspirants before the bench and sought urgent listing.
The petitioner wanted a direction to the Centre and others to reconsider the feasibility of conducting the examination on June 21 after taking into account the representations of aspirants.
On Wednesday, the CJI-led Bench had refused to stay on the decision to re-conduct NEET-UG 2026 scheduled for June 21, which will decide the fate of 23 lakh aspirants seeking admission to undergraduate medical courses across India.
On May 12, the Centre and the NTA cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 held on May 3 and the NEET paper leak case has since been handed over to the CBI which has arrested 13 accused from Delhi, Gurugram, Jaipur, Nasik, Pune and some other places.
Terming it “very traumatic” for students and their families, the Supreme Court had on May 29 called for fixing accountability in the NEET paper leak case even as the Centre said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally monitoring the situation.
“The real problem won’t stop till actual accountability arises. Not in terms of so and so will be liable, it will be effective when we know which individual shoulders the responsibility. Unless you identify the specific duty bearers, it will be difficult,” Justice Narasimha-led Bench had said.
“The UPSC has never been in such a situation… You need to learn,” Justice Narasimha had said, adding the NTA should learn from other bodies such as the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) which has been conducting the prestigious Civil Services Examinations without any paper leak for decades.
Asking the Centre to file an affidavit in the matter, the Bench had posted petitions seeking a direction to replace the NTA with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance examination for further hearing in the second week of July after summer vacation.
