TNI Bureau: The Supreme Court of India on Monday strongly criticised the National Testing Agency over repeated irregularities in the NEET examination, saying it was “sad” that the agency had failed to learn from past controversies related to paper leaks.

A bench of Justices P. S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe sought responses from the Centre, NTA and the Central Bureau of Investigation on petitions demanding restructuring or replacement of the testing body.

The court directed NTA to submit an affidavit by Thursday explaining the steps taken to implement recommendations made after the 2024 NEET paper leak controversy. It also asked the Centre-appointed reform panel headed by former K. Radhakrishnan to place details of corrective measures on record.

The petitions, including one filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association, argued that repeated paper leaks had severely affected the future of more than 22.7 lakh NEET aspirants and called for a more transparent and autonomous examination system.

The NEET-UG exam held on May 3 for medical admissions was cancelled on May 12 following allegations of a paper leak. The case is currently being investigated by the CBI.