Calls grow to dissolve National Testing Agency
UGC-NET June 2026 exams for English, Commerce, and Sociology to be reconducted.
National Testing Agency (NTA) has either completely failed or the examination mafia has established its dominance over this agency. After the NEET paper leak, nationwide protests raised serious questions about the credibility and capability of this agency, and now the issue of irregularities in the UGC-NET June 2026 question papers has come to light.
NTA announced on Sunday that it will,
reconduct the UGC-NET June 2026 exams for English, Commerce, and Sociology subjects. This decision was taken after an investigation by a committee, which found a large number of factual, typing, and translation errors in the question papers of these three subjects. Additionally, many questions from previous years' exams were repeated.
The committee concluded that these question papers do not meet the standards of a "fair and error-free examination."
In its notice, NTA clarified that the re-examinations will be held on 9th and 10th September. No additional examination fee will be charged from candidates who have already appeared for these three subjects. The English exam will be held on 9th September in the first shift from 9 AM to 12 PM. The Commerce exam will be conducted on the same day in the second shift from 3 PM to 6 PM. The Sociology exam will be held on 10th September in the first shift from 9 AM to 12 PM.
According to NTA, the committee's investigation recorded factual, typing, and translation errors in these three question papers. These included incorrect spellings of prominent scholars' names, incorrect or distorted book titles, errors in the language of questions, grammatical mistakes, gender and number errors, punctuation mistakes, and the use of non-standard words for established concepts. The committee also found that a large number of questions were repeated from previous years' exams. This decision was taken following complaints from candidates.
Notably, a few days ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made it clear in its investigation that the subject experts of the National Testing Agency (NTA) themselves leaked the confidential question papers and then delivered them to candidates through a network of intermediaries in exchange for large sums of money. The NEET-UG 2026 paper leak was the result of a well-planned criminal conspiracy spread across several states. The agency has included the names of 13 accused in the chargesheet filed in the special CBI court at Rouse Avenue, Delhi. Among them are three subject experts appointed by NTA. It is alleged that these experts misused their official positions to illegally access the question papers before the examination and then passed them on through intermediaries.
Questions are continuously being raised about NTA, criticism is mounting, and the central government remains silent on this matter. Now, this episode of irregularities in the UGC-NET June 2026 question papers has emerged at a time when just a few weeks ago, protests by Gen Z against the paper leak at Jantar Mantar had put the Narendra Modi government under unprecedented pressure.
It should be noted that NTA conducted UGC-NET for 87 subjects between 22nd and 30th June. Based on this examination, eligibility for admission to PhD, Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), and Assistant Professor is determined. Earlier, NTA conducted the medical entrance exam NEET-UG in May, but it had to be cancelled due to a paper leak and was re-conducted on 21st June.
After the exam was cancelled, incidents of student suicides came to light, and protests were held across the country demanding reforms in the education system. Under the leadership of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), protests at Jantar Mantar led to the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
On Sunday, NTA released the provisional answer key for 84 out of 87 subjects conducted in June, while the question papers for English, Commerce, and Sociology were cancelled. The agency stated that candidates can challenge any question until 11:59 PM on 18th August. A fee of ₹200 per question will be charged for this. If the expert committee finds the challenge valid, this amount will be refunded. UGC-NET is conducted twice a year. The exam consists of a total of 150 questions, with 100 questions from the relevant subject and 50 questions from general aptitude.
JNU Students' Union President Aditi Mishra said,
In addition to these irregularities, there was a record 47-day delay in releasing the answer key, which will further delay the PhD admission process. Usually, NTA declares the NET result in about 15 days. This time it took so long just to release the answer key. Now it will take a few more days to declare the results. These issues indicate that NTA is not sufficiently capable of conducting entrance exams across the country.
On the condition of anonymity, a candidate accused NTA of "playing with students' careers" by conducting exams poorly and delaying important decisions.
The student said,
Complaints about repeated questions and other irregularities were submitted immediately after the exam ended. But NTA took 45 days to make any decision on them. "Now three papers have been cancelled, and we have barely three weeks to prepare for the re-examination."
All India Students Association (AISA) President Neha Bora held NTA and the National Education Policy (NEP), which recommends centralized entrance exams, responsible for the continuous irregularities in the exams.
She said,
NTA should be abolished, and NEP should be scrapped.
A student who appeared for NET in 2024 and is now pursuing a PhD said that even that year, the exam had to be cancelled due to a paper leak. We protested at that time too, but nothing changed. Many students are still deprived of PhD admissions because they could not pass NET, even though professors are willing to take them under their guidance based on their research proposals.