The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government to present details of its implementation of the recommendations of the K Radhakrishnan committee, constituted in the aftermath of the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, along with a definite timeline, stressing that it was more concerned with institutionalising the National Testing Agency (NTA) than merely putting in place security protocols on paper.
The court directed the secretary concerned to file an affidavit within three weeks, detailing the steps taken to implement the Radhakrishnan committee’s recommendations as reflected and nuanced by the Nilekani committee, along with indicative timelines. It added that the committee had correctly identified the problem as systemic, requiring institutionalisation. “This process on paper, everything is good. The court drew a comparison with the Union Public Service Commission, saying that an institution which conducts examinations regularly develops institutional memory and expertise over time.
On Monday, reacting to the Sunday incident, education ministry officials said NTA has fired at least 50 staff and embarked on the process of filling 10 new senior positions including Chief Technology Officer, General Manager (Test Security), and GM (R&D and Psychometrics).
A bench of justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe, hearing petitions related to the NEET UG 2026 paper leak , directed the Union government to file an affidavit detailing the steps taken to implement the Radhakrishnan committee’s recommendations, as “reflected and nuanced” by the high-powered task force headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, and give indicative timelines for their implementation. “All this was already under the purview of the Radhakrishnan committee,” observed the bench, pointing out that the court had gone through the systems being developed over a period of time. But then one exam happens and by the time the second exam happens, it is a new picture altogether,” said the bench, adding that it wanted to know what the NTA actually looked like as an institution — how many officers it had, where its office was situated, how much staff and security it had and what infrastructure had been created.
The court’s intervention came as the Centre explained in detail the elaborate security measures currently employed by the NTA to prevent question-paper leaks, including multiple layers of question-paper selection, sealed transportation, GPS tracking, CCTV surveillance, police escort and one-time-use boxes that have to be physically broken open before the examination.
