The National Medical Commission has directed medical colleges not to grant leave to students on May 2 and 3, to prevent them from acting as proxy candidates in the NEET-UG 2026 exam on May 3. The measure addresses past cheating incidents involving MBBS students. The National Testing Agency is implementing enhanced security protocols.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has advised all medical colleges not to grant leave on May 2 and 3, except in exceptional circumstances with justification, following directions from the Department of Higher Education under the Union ministry of education. On April 20, DoHE secretary Vineet Joshi wrote to health ministry secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, urging vigilance against malpractices.
NMC secretary Dr Raghav Langer stated in an April 23 notice, “In view of certain instances reported in the past… all medical colleges shall remain vigilant and ensure that medical students are sensitised against any involvement in activities prejudicial to the conduct of the examination.” In NEET-UG 2024, at least seven MBBS students from Bihar, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan were arrested by the CBI for acting as proxies or being part of solver gangs, a senior education ministry official said.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the NEET-UG exam on May 3 in a single shift using pen-and-paper mode across over 5,400 centres in 551 cities in India and abroad, for around 2.28 million candidates. NTA director general Abhishek Singh said biometric verification has been strengthened to one machine per 48 candidates, up from one per 100 last year, with checks on category changes to curb fake documents.
Enhanced measures include GPS-tracked transport of question papers with police escorts, double-lock strong rooms under 24x7 CCTV surveillance, Aadhaar-based biometrics, two-layer frisking, and real-time monitoring via control rooms. All centres underwent third-party verification, excluding those linked to coaching institutes or with poor infrastructure; government officials serve as superintendents and observers. These steps follow the NEET-UG 2024 paper leak controversy, prompting a seven-member panel led by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan to reform NTA.
