India's medical entrance exam cancelled amid paper leak charges

New Delhi, India: The medical entrance examination, or the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), conducted 10 days ago for undergraduate courses, was cancelled on Tuesday amid charges of paper leak.

Announcing the decision, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which had conducted the test, posted on X, "With the approval of the Government of India, the NTA has decided to cancel the NEET (UG) 2026 examination conducted on 3 May 2026, and to re-conduct the examination on dates that will be notified separately."

The NTA also announced that no fresh registration would be required for the re-test, and no additional examination fee would be levied. In addition, the fees already paid would be refunded to the students and the examination would be re-conducted using NTA's internal resources.

Around 45 people had already been detained by the security agencies for interrogation regarding the alleged paper leak, said media reports.

Over 2.2 million students had appeared for the test this year.

According to media reports, a "Guess Paper" that matched over 150 questions of the actual exam, particularly in Biology and Chemistry subjects, was circulated several days before the examination.

This was not the first occasion when questions were raised on the fairness and transparency of the NTA.