Centre submits affidavit on NEET reforms mentions steps taken to strengthen education system
The Centre, filing an affidavit before a bench headed by Justice P.S. Narasimha, told the Supreme Court that it has undertaken comprehensive overhaul of the conduct of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test to eliminate paper leaks and cheating failures.
The Ministry of Education said the reforms are aimed at creating a robust and institutional system that preserves institutional memory, strengthens examination security, and prevents future incidents of paper leaks or malpractices. The affidavit was filed in response to the top court’s direction asking the union government to explain how future NEET examinations would be conducted and how regulatory authorities would build and retain institutional memory to improve examination process over the coming years. The centre further said that while the Ministry of Education oversees the testing agency NEET is conducted by the NTA on behalf of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It also said that the affidavit does not comment on the merits of the ongoing CBI investigation into the NEET UG 2026 paper leak.
Besides, it mentioned about the Public Examinations Amendment Act 2026 passed at the monsoon session this year that criminalizes question paper leaks, impersonation, tampering with computer systems and other examination-related offenses. The court was further informed about the constitution of a high task force on examination reforms to recommend substantial improvements in the conduct of public examination and to modernize examination systems.
Shedding light on the security reforms, The affidavit mentioned that the NTA has implemented a 10-state security protocol described by officials as a fortress model. To prevent leaks at the translation stage, the government is using air-gapped AI systems for initial drafting, followed by limited human verification, it added. It mentioned that the papers are housed in six layers of tamper-evident packaging, including steel trunks with one-time use locks that can only be cut open.