The integrity crisis: NEET paper leak fiasco unmasks widespread fraud in India's academic hubs

More than 2.28 million candidates took the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate), also known as NEET-UG, at over 5,000 centres across India. However, students received a rude shock when the exams were cancelled due to the leak and circulation of questions and answers by an organised gang of well-educated teachers. Entire question papers were leaked, not just topics and concepts, but the wording and order too.

In a short span of time, outrage spread across the nation over this dastardly act, which instantly destroyed years of dedicated exam preparation, pressure, coaching fees, sacrifices and hopes of lakhs of students and their families.

The crisis forced the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam, to cancel it, causing deep frustration and anger among young aspirants. The Supreme Court, on Monday (May 25, 2026), squarely blamed the National Testing Agency (NTA) for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2026 paper leak, saying the exam body sadly did not learn its lesson even two years after the last security breach in 2024.

For the Supreme Court, the NEET-UG 2026 paper leak was a repetition of what happened in 2024, which had similarly put the careers and future of over 20 lakh students in jeopardy. The court had, at that time, taken cognisance of the fiasco and heard petitioners over many days, deciding not to cancel the 2024 exam after reasoning that the leak was localised.

However, the apex court had acknowledged the need to reform the examination process and make it foolproof. It had directed the constitution of a committee headed by former ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan to recommend changes in the way the NTA conducted the crucial annual exam for medical admissions across the country.

“It is so sad, really, that the NTA has not learnt its lesson. We had with such difficulty heard the petitions in 2024 and passed orders… We had directed the constitution of a committee to give recommendations… Those recommendations, we believe were accepted… a monitoring/high-powered committee was appointed,” Justice P.S. Narasimha, heading a two-judge Bench, observed.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) to “replace or fundamentally restructure” the NTA.

A second petition by the United Doctors Front was also heard, seeking the transition of the NTA from a registered society to a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament to ensure constitutional and parliamentary accountability. The doctors’ body said the 2026 paper leak was part of a “recurring, systemic, and catastrophic failure” of the NTA in conducting the NEET-UG examination.

The petitions have sought sweeping directions from the Government to mandate “digital locking” of question papers and a transition to the CBT model to eliminate physical chain-of-custody risks.

The doctors’ body pointed out that, unlike the Union Public Service Commission or the Staff Selection Commission, the NTA was not directly answerable to Parliament. It operated under the Ministry of Education, shielding it from direct CAG audits and mandatory parliamentary committee probes.

Leaving the above issues aside, which are likely to be overhauled, the moot question is why the NTA is not able to ensure a hassle-free examination. If the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) in the United States can be administered globally every year without any hitch, why cannot the NTA ensure a smooth process?

The GRE is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), a non-profit organisation. Since 1947, when ETS was created to oversee test administration and research, the GRE has become one of the most recognised tests in the world, accepted at thousands of graduate programmes, more than 1,300 business schools and over 120 law programmes across more than 90 countries.

In addition to the GRE, ETS also administers and oversees TOEFL (a test that assesses English language skills in an academic context), TOEIC (a test that assesses English communication skills in the workplace) and Praxis (a test that assesses teaching skills and educator preparation).

However, there are innumerable complaints of cheating in the GRE as well. Most unfortunately, South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh figure prominently among those accused of indulging in cheating.

If we dispassionately analyse the 2026 NEET leak, it has to be accepted that a few unscrupulous teachers (question paper setters), a few wily students, and their parents were enthusiastic collaborators in this fraudulent episode.

Should the NTA be blamed for the unscrupulousness and lack of integrity of a few teachers, students and their families?

Preliminary investigations by the CBI and state police into NEET paper leak syndicates reveal that individual students and their families paid amounts ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹50 lakh to secure advance access to question papers.

For example, a parent named Dinesh Biwal from Sikar, Rajasthan, allegedly paid nearly ₹10 lakh to procure a leaked NEET question paper for his son, Rishi Biwal. However, despite allegedly obtaining access to the paper in advance, Rishi reportedly managed to answer questions worth only 107 marks in the examination.

These are the kind of people hoping to forcibly enter the Indian health sector, by hook or by crook.

Students and their parents are cheating like never before. It is a worrying malaise across sectors. According to the Bar Council of India (BCI), an estimated 35–40 per cent of advocates in India hold fake law degrees, a figure based on nationwide verification efforts.

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking directions to the Bar Council of India to formulate and implement, within a time-bound framework, a uniform nationwide mechanism for verification and authentication of advocate enrolment records, educational qualifications and practice status, in coordination with all State Bar Councils.

"Fake" software professionals from India in the US encompass several well-documented issues ranging from resume fraud and proxy interviews to systemic visa manipulation. This ecosystem thrives on exploiting loopholes in remote work and the international hiring process. Many Indian IT firms are facing serious H-1B visa fraud allegations in the United States. US authorities are investigating fake job offers, shell offices and misuse of the H-1B programme.

In India, the University Grants Commission (UGC) regularly identifies and lists "fake universities" that are not authorised to award valid degrees under the UGC Act of 1956. As of February 2026, at least 32 fake universities had been identified across 12 states, with major concentrations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

In July 2025, India’s academic sector was shocked by reports of the sale of fake degrees by one of its renowned universities, Manav Bharti University (MBU). MBU reportedly sold 36,000 fake degrees over 11 years for prices ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 rupees (US$1,362–4,085), as reported by the South China Morning Post. A special team of investigators in India found that, of the 41,000 degrees issued by the university, only 5,000 were authentic.

The above case is claimed to be India’s largest educational fraud case and went viral in February 2021. The Himachal Pradesh government gave Manav Bharti Charitable Trust permission to run the university in 2009 after initially rejecting a related proposal in 2008. Investigation into the case began after an anonymous complaint was made to the University Grants Commission.

University fraud is occurring because of an incentive structure in which business benefits are tied to rankings. These benefits include autonomy, graded autonomy, permission to open new campuses, launch fresh courses and offer online degrees. The result is relentless gaming of metrics. Here are some figures:

Four private universities, for instance, claimed to have conducted more research and filed more patents than all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) combined. Five private universities boasted research scores above 90, while the elite Indian Institute of Science (IISc) scored 51.9; indeed, 70 universities ranked above IISc. Data of this nature, by itself, ought to have triggered an investigation, suo motu, by the Ministry of Education.

In September 2025, it emerged that even the premier IITs under-reported admissions to inflate placement percentages and faculty-student ratios. Against a sanctioned intake of 1,001 seats, combined IIT admissions were shown as only 710 (70.9%) for placement calculations.

In 2025 and early 2026, medical colleges were found inflating faculty strength ahead of inspections; law schools faced scrutiny over exaggerated placement disclosures; and several universities quietly withdrew research papers following complaints of plagiarism and data fabrication. Across disciplines — medicine, law, management and the sciences — there is a familiar pattern of cheating and outright fraud.

When rankings, patents and enrolment numbers become paramount in obtaining government benefits, it will inevitably lead to fraud and cheating in examinations, laboratories, courtrooms, hospitals and boardrooms. Unfortunately, all this is happening under the direct supervision of vice-chancellors, professors and teachers who are extolled as “Gurus”.

If every sector in India has been compromised, can the Civil Services be far behind? Many cases have now emerged involving serving IAS, IPS, IFS and IRS officers who entered the service using fake documents related to caste, income and disability certificates. The recent case of Puja Khedkar (2024–2025) remains fresh in public memory. She was a probationary IAS officer whose candidature was cancelled by the UPSC in July 2024. She was accused of faking her identity to bypass attempt limits and using forged documents to claim physical disability and OBC non-creamy layer status. She was officially discharged from the IAS in September 2024. However, many more officers continue to remain in public service.

Though India boasts of a civilisation based on the concepts of Dharma (duty/righteousness) and Karma (cause and effect), discussions in Indian media often focus on the erosion of civic sense, corruption and the commercialisation of educational institutions. Due to the absence of ethical foundations, educational institutions have gone astray. Manipulation of data, plagiarism, outsourcing doctoral theses and similar practices have damaged the culture of universities, research and academia. This state of affairs is reflected in the global rankings of educational institutions in India. Currently, no Indian university features among the top 100 in major global university rankings. While India has 54 institutions in the QS World University Rankings, the highest-ranked Indian institution is IIT Delhi at 123rd place.

The problem is not NTA but the Indians themselves. A clean-up from Alpha to Omega is needed, but who will do it, and how should it be done?

The author is former Director General of National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics