Doctors' body moves Supreme Court seeking dissolution of NTA after NEET-UG paper leak

The United Doctors Front (UDF) on Saturday moved the Supreme Court of India seeking the dissolution of the National Testing Agency (NTA) in its current form following the alleged paper leak of the NEET-UG 2026 examination, which led to its cancellatgion.

THE UDF, which is a registered organisation of doctors, has filed the petition in the SC under Article 32 of the Constitution. It has alleged systemic and catastrophic failure" in the conduction of NEET-UG 2026, and has sought structural reforms in the examination system.

The petition has been filed through Advocate-on-Record Ritu Reniwal as well as Advocate Mahendra Kumawat. The plea seeks a writ direction by the apex court to the Union Government to dissolve the NTA as it is presently constituted under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and be replaced with a statutory national testing body created through legislation passed by the Parliament.

the ParliameThe petition has also asked the apex court to direct the Union of India to bring in a new law that will establish a statutory testing authority which will have defined legal powers, transparency norms, and will be accountable tont. the UDF has also prayed for a court-monitored committee to supervise the transition of upcoming national examinations and ensure "zero-leak integrity".

The petition claims that the NEET-UG 2026, which was conducted across the country on 3 May for 22.7 lakh candidates, was compromised due to an organised "guess paper" racket which allegedly spread across several states through WhatsApp and Telegram rackets.

The plea refers to investigations by the Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG) and the subsequent CBI FIR to contend that the sanctity of the examination stood compromised at a systemic level.

AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj met the family of the aspirant and claimed that the student was under stress after reports of an alleged NEET paper leak surfaced.

According to him, the student had appeared for the NEET examination multiple times and was making her final attempt this year.

He said the family had pinned high hopes on her performance and described her efforts as significant given her background.

Bharadwaj also urged the Centre to take the matter seriously and identify the "real masterminds" behind alleged paper leaks linked to competitive examinations.

Bharadwaj claimed that similar cases of students taking extreme steps had emerged from different parts of the country.

The arrest was made on the basis of questioning of alleged kingpin P V Kulkarni and other accused in the paper leak case, they said.

The biology lecturer Manisha Mandhare was arrested in New Delhi after being questioned by the agency at its headquarters, they said.

She was allegedly involved in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) examination process and was appointed by the NTA as an expert, they said.

Officials said Mandhare had complete access to the Botony and Zoology question papers.

Mandhare is alleged to have mobilised prospective NEET examination candidates in April 2026 through Manisha Wagmare of Pune, who was arrested on May 14, and conducted special coaching classes for these students at her Pune residence.

It is alleged that Mandhare dictated leaked questions and responses to select students and took lakhs of rupees as fee.

Most of these questions tallied with the questions that appeared in the examination on May 3. The NEET exam was cancelled following allegations of a paper leak.

The CBI had arrested Professor P V Kulkarni, a domain expert in chemistry from Latur on Friday. Kulkarni for years served on panels involved in setting the NEET question paper.

With agency inputs