New Delhi, Aug 19 The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has questioned before the Supreme Court the adequacy of measures enumerated by the National Testing Agency (NTA) to curb examination paper leaks.
FAIMA, which filed its response to an affidavit filed by NTA, contended that the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Act, 2026 must specifically address an eventuality where persons including paper setters, paper vetters and other authorised personnel misuse that access by copying, sharing, transmitting or disclosing the material to an unauthorised person.
"Since such a person has been entrusted with extremely confidential material and has abused a position of trust, the law may treat such conduct as an aggravated offence carrying stricter punishment and penalties which are not included in The Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Act, 2026," FAIMA said.
"While (the) UOI (Union of India) has constituted a High-Powered Task Force on examination reforms under the chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani, it has not provided sufficient or any reasoning at all on the fact as to why the recommendations of the earlier constituted High-Level Committee of Experts headed by Dr K Radhakrishnan were not followed in letter and spirit...
"The said reasoning is important since the students cannot afford to have repeated instances of paper leaks and see a new committee being formed after each year, without the recommendations of that Committee being executed fully by the authorities," FAIMA said.
FAIMA, represented through advocate Tanvi Dubey, submitted that the Radhakrishnan Committee submitted a report in 2024 with a total of 101 recommendations.
"The recommendations were very detailed including the pre-exam SOP, during exam SOP and post-exam SOP. However, despite such recommendations already in place, a paper leak happened in the year 2026 and there is a need for one more task force despite the existing recommendations already in place," it said.
The seven-member Radhakrishnan Committee was set up by the Ministry of Education in the wake of the NEET-UG paper leak to make recommendations on reforms in the examination process, improvement in data security protocols and the structure and functioning of the NTA.
The government had also set up a high-powered task force led by Infosys co-founder Nilekani for structural reforms in competitive examinations.
The top court is seized of a batch of petitions, including one by the FAIMA.
One of the pleas sought a direction to replace or restructure the NTA, which is responsible for conducting NEET-UG, with a robust and autonomous body to conduct the medical entrance examination.
The paper leak allegations are under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
After questions of NEET-UG were allegedly leaked in 2024, the top court had refused to cancel the test, but passed various directions aimed at tackling paper leaks and also a criterion for cancelling public exams.
