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In its affidavit filed before the Supreme Court ahead of Friday’s hearing on pleas seeking the restructuring or replacement of the NTA, the agency outlined a sweeping overhaul of examination security, administration, and technology going forward, even as it defended its handling of the cancelled NEET-UG 2026.

The testing agency submitted that it cancelled the exam despite having deployed the most stringent safeguards ever, after receiving “inputs alleging malpractice activity around the examination”.

The proposal on the use of AI in translation – which is one of several steps listed by NTA in the affidavit as part of its “way forward” – is significant because the CBI investigation into the paper leak has found that one of the arrested subject experts, Manisha Gurunath Mandhare, was involved in both setting questions and translating the paper.

Mandhare, a Biology expert from Pune’s Modern College of Arts, is learnt to have translated questions in both the Botany and Zoology sections, which gave her access to a wider portion of the paper than previously known.

Another arrested expert, retired Chemistry lecturer P V Kulkarni of Dayanand Junior College in Latur, allegedly translated the paper into Marathi. Investigators have also alleged that Mandhare conspired with co-accused Manisha Waghmare and Kulkarni.

The affidavit also states that the “Randomization & Rotation Policy” is being “further institutionalised for the engagement of paper setters, moderators, vetters, translators, proof-readers, etc”, and “background checks/ antecedent verification of such functionaries as well as of the officials involved in high-stakes exams of NTA shall…be rigorously undertaken”.

The affidavit comes days after a Supreme Court Bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, while hearing petitions filed by the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and the United Doctors Front (UDF), observed that it was “sad that NTA has not learned lessons from the earlier NEET paper leak”.

In its defence, the NTA presented a detailed account of reforms implemented under the supervision of the High-Powered Steering Committee (HPSC) headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan. The HPSC was constituted by the Ministry of Education in November 2024 after a High-Level Committee of Experts submitted 101 recommendations on examination reforms. According to the affidavit, the HPSC continues to function and monitor the implementation of those recommendations.

The NTA affidavit submitted that less than three weeks before NEET-UG 2026, the HPSC had reviewed preparations, and suggested an “elaborate set of pre-examination, during-examination and post-examination measures”.

These measures included “conducting comprehensive mock drills covering infrastructure, surveillance and logistics”, “thorough vetting of CCTV cameras for installation and functionality in all exam rooms”, preservation of CCTV footage “for at least 90 days”, analysis of candidate-allotment data “to identify patterns or risks”, and “confidential rigorous vetting of question papers to pre-empt possible problems”.

The committee also recommended “comprehensive post-examination analysis of recorded footage to detect anomalies” that may not be detected in real time, including instances where candidates leave examination halls and return to sit in a different seat.

According to the affidavit, NEET-UG 2026 was conducted on May 3 at 5,432 centres across India and 14 centres abroad under a vastly strengthened security architecture involving biometric authentication, AI-assisted surveillance, mobile jammers, district-level monitoring and inter-agency coordination.

Candidates underwent “Aadhaar-based biometric authentication” involving QR-code verification, live photographs, fingerprint capture and real-time UIDAI authentication. Any mismatch in facial recognition or Aadhaar verification triggered “an immediate alert to the NTA Central Control Room and City Head”, and candidates were detained for post-examination verification. Face authentication was also undertaken at the registration stage.

A “multi-layer frisking mechanism” was employed, involving “initial frisking by the State Police outside the centre and second-layer checks by NTA inside the centre”, using more than 22,750 hand-held metal detectors along with separate female enclosures and prescribed manpower ratios.

To prevent electronic cheating, mobile jammers were installed at all 5,432 examination centres. Nearly 1.85 lakh CCTV cameras were deployed across examination halls, entry gates, biometric counters, corridors, strong rooms and control rooms, while AI-based tools were used to analyse surveillance feeds for malpractice and unfair means.

Monitoring was conducted through a five-tier structure comprising NTA observers at centres, District-Level Coordination Committees, monitoring hubs at Higher Education Institutions, a national NTA command-and-control centre and an inter-departmental control room in the Ministry of Education.

On the security of question papers, the agency said “multiple sets” were prepared, with one set retained as a backup. Printing was carried out under protocols involving “verification, monitoring and guarding” under the supervision of a designated senior officer. Electronic devices were prohibited at printing facilities and CCTV recordings were preserved.

The agency also said question setters were isolated in secure rooms with no Internet or mobile phone access, rough work was shredded daily, and questions were stored in encrypted form in a master computer at a command centre using cryptographic delivery systems.

Despite this “full security protocol” having been followed for the exam, on May 7 evening, the agency received inputs alleging malpractice, the affidavit said. The following morning, it escalated those inputs to central agencies for independent verification and action. Based on findings shared by the investigative agencies, the examination was subsequently cancelled and the matter referred to the CBI.

The re-exam on June 21 would be held under a “further strengthened SOP framework, with multi-layer authentication, surveillance and inter-agency coordination”, the NTA told the court. It said it has undertaken “extensive coordination with Chief Secretaries, DGPs, District Magistrates and Collectors, and with the Department of Posts for secure logistics” to ensure the exam is held in a “safe, secure and smooth manner”.

The NTA noted that among its major exams, “only NEET(UG) 2026 was conducted in Pen & Paper (PPT) mode”, while “all other major NTA examinations are already in Computer Based Test (CBT) mode.

This will change: The expert committee has “specifically recommended transition of NEET(UG) from PPT to CBT mode, along with the introduction of multi-session and multi-stage testing”, the NTA informed the court. “The transition will be implemented from the next examination cycle in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare”, it said.

Among other steps in its “way forward”, the NTA told the court that plans to develop “at least 1,000 Secure Testing Centres in reputed Government institutions”, adopt “cloud-based infrastructure / AI-ML / blockchain”, and develop “international cooperation and collaboration”.

The agency also said that surplus funds available with NTA were being deployed to strengthen examination security through “advanced cybersecurity systems and next-generation firewalls”, upgraded IT infrastructure for examination delivery and result processing, AI-enabled CCTV monitoring, mobile jammers, strengthened control-room networks, standardised testing-centre security infrastructure and induction of additional domain professionals.