A student who appeared for the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination has alleged that her score on the National Testing Agency (NTA) portal dropped from 540 to 167 marks within hours of the results being declared, while the agency has rejected allegations of manipulation and said reports of tampered OMR sheets are false.
Arya Singh, a candidate from Kanpur, said that when she first checked her result on the NTA portal around midnight on July 16, it showed she had scored 540 marks. She alleged that when she logged in again about two hours later, her score had changed to 167 marks.
Singh also alleged that the dispute began after the NTA uploaded her OMR answer sheet on the night of July 13.
She said the question numbers in the initial OMR sheet were not in the correct sequence and that, after matching her responses, she calculated her expected score to be 609 marks. Singh said she raised the issue through the NTA’s challenge portal, following which the agency uploaded a revised OMR sheet with the question sequence corrected.
According to Singh, her estimated score remained 609 even after the revised OMR sheet was uploaded. However, when the final results were announced, the NTA portal showed she had scored 167 marks. The result currently available on the NTA website lists her score as 167, with an All India Rank of 1,252,036.
Her father, Rakesh Singh, a retired Rajputana Rifles soldier, said the family had submitted a complaint to the NTA and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, seeking an investigation into the alleged discrepancy. He said they suspected an error in the OMR scanning process.
The allegations prompted criticism from the opposition Congress party, which shared a video of the student’s claims on social media platform X and accused the government of failing students. The party also called on Pradhan to resign.
The NTA denied allegations of manipulation, saying reports claiming NEET-UG OMR sheets had been tampered with were “false”. The agency warned of legal action against those circulating or submitting fabricated material and said some OMR sheets being shared on social media or submitted for verification were fake or generated using artificial intelligence. It urged candidates to rely only on official records available on its portal.
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