The Education Ministry of the Central Government of India announced on Wednesday the cancellation of the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET) exam in a move to “ensure the sanctity of exams” amid an ongoing controversy surrounding the results of a medical entrance exam.

The UGC NET exam is conducted to determine the eligibility of individuals for the posts of Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellow in Indian universities, and it is conducted twice each year in June and December. The administration of the exam is entrusted to the National Testing Agency (NTA). In addition to the UGC NET exam, the NTA has the responsibility of administering other exams of public importance.

One of these exams is the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), which is used for admission into medical programs at the undergraduate level. It was held earlier this year on May 5, and following the release of results on June 4 (which was ten days earlier than scheduled), people noticed multiple discrepancies. Amongst these were an abnormally high number of people getting a perfect score on the exam, people losing writing time due to errors in administration, and allegations of exam leaks. The NTA released a response to these concerns on June 6, claiming that the increase in perfect scores was due to an increased pool of applicants and denying any allegations of exam leaks. It later decided to give grace marks to those affected by administrative errors but in the end decided to scrap the scores entirely and provide these candidates with a retest. Throughout this period, multiple petitions were submitted to High Courts throughout the country. Proceedings are currently ongoing before the Supreme Court.

A police document with 22-year-old candidate Anurag Yadav’s confession has recently been making rounds on social media platform X, wherein he confessed to receiving the exam the night before the exam.

In the backdrop of the ongoing NEET issue, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (under the Home Ministry) advised the Education Ministry that the “integrity of the [UGC NET exam] may have been compromised.” The Ministry has said that fresh exams will be held in the future and that all UGC NET exams which were written stand cancelled. Further, the case has been forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a “thorough investigation.”