NEW DELHI: As the National Testing Agency gears up to declare NEET-UG 2026 retest results by July 20, it may have to race against time with students sending over 10,000 challenges to the answer keys released last week.
“NTA is confident of releasing the results before July 20. But the immediate priority for us is to respond to the 10,000-odd challenges we have received from the aspirants to the provisional answer keys which we made public on June 25,” sources told this newspaper.
Over 20 lakh candidates have appeared for the re-test held on June 21 across 5,440 centres in India and 14 abroad. The re-exam had to be held due to the cancellation of the May 3 medical entrance test.
Many students have put out multiple challenges to the answer keys. “It will be a humongous task. We need to scan all the challenges one by one, read them thoroughly, examine the supporting evidence and respond to each one of them,” said an official.
The NTA had released the provisional answer keys on June 25 and candidates were given time till June 28 (11.50 pm) to challenge them. A fee of `200 is to be paid per question which would be refunded if the challenge by the student proves to be correct.
When asked about the examiners who will be checking the answer sheets, an official said: “A confidential team has been set up to do the job. Nothing more can be revealed.
The security apparatus during the process will be as stringent as the one we had put in place for the exam with CCTVs and a centralised monitoring system. The examiners will be working almost 24x7 to meet the deadline.”
Paper leak: Judicial custody extended
A Delhi court extended the judicial custody of 10 accused arrested in connection with the NEET-UG 2026 examination leak till July 11. Special Judge Vijeta Singh Rawat allowed the CBI’s plea to extend their custody for further investigation. Three other accused have already been sent to judicial custody till July 8
