NEET UG candidate moves Delhi High Court alleging his score on NTA portal changed thrice in 24 hours

A NEET-UG 2026 aspirant has moved the Delhi High Court seeking production of his original OMR answer sheet, after his score on the National Testing Agency’s (NTA) portal changed thrice within 24 hours of the result being declared.

According to the petition, the aspirant had estimated his score at around 620-640 marks based on the official answer key and his own recorded responses.

However, when the result was declared on July 16, his score first showed as 650 marks on the portal. After being logged out and attempting to log in again, he found his score had changed to 500 marks. The next day, it dropped further to 135 marks.

The candidate claims he received no explanation for the change in his marks despite writing to the NTA and filing an RTI application seeking his original records.

According to the plea, he later visited the NTA office in New Delhi where officials showed him an OMR sheet on a computer screen. He immediately objected, claiming that it was not the OMR sheet he had filled during the examination.

The petition has alleged that despite his objection, officials informed him that the displayed OMR sheet was the only one available in their records and that the same document would be produced even if he approached the Court.

The candidate has clarified that he is not seeking re-evaluation of his answers. Instead, he has sought directions to preserve and produce the original physical OMR sheet filled by him, along with the connected digital records, so that an independent verification of the evaluation process can be undertaken.

He has contended that, as a public authority conducting one of India’s largest entrance examinations, the NTA is under a constitutional obligation to maintain transparency, fairness and accountability in the evaluation process.

The petition comes at a time when the Supreme Court is examining structural reforms to the conduct of NEET following the 2026 paper leak controversy. The top court recently stressed the need to institutionalise reforms within the NTA instead of relying on ad hoc measures.

The petition has been filed through advocate Vineet Jindal.

Corrigendum: The article earlier erroneously reported that the petition was filed before the Supreme Court. The error is regretted and has been corrected.