Supreme Court Calls for Institutionalising the National Testing Agency

20 August 2026National

The Supreme Court of India has stressed the need to institutionalise the National Testing Agency (NTA) and introduce technological safeguards to improve exam reliability and integrity, amid growing concern over irregularities in national entrance exams. NTA, set up in 2017 under the Ministry of Education, conducts JEE (Main), NEET-UG, CUET and UGC-NET. The remarks add judicial weight to an active reform push: NTA's four-tier question-paper checking system rolled out a day earlier (19 Aug), Jharkhand cancelled its JSSC-CGL/TDPL exams over irregularities (18 Aug), and the government has separately introduced the Public Examinations (Unfair Means) Amendment Bill 2026 and a Nandan Nilekani-led exam-reform task force.

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NTA was set up in 2017 as an autonomous testing body under the Ministry of Education | NTA headquarters: New Delhi | NTA conducts JEE (Main), NEET-UG, CUET and UGC-NET

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