What Constitutes a ‘Paper Leak’? Parliamentary Panel Seeks Answers from NTA, CBSE on NEET and OSM Issues

By Mahima Katal

New Delhi, June 8: A Parliamentary panel examining the alleged NEET-UG 2026 paper leak and concerns surrounding the CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system has sought detailed explanations from the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), including a clarification on what exactly constitutes a “paper leak”.

Ironically, NTA has maintained that there was no leak even as the result of the examination was officially was cancelled following reports that the questions were in the public domain even before the examination.

According to the reports the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, chaired by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, has asked the NTA to define a paper leak and disclose whether any such incidents have occurred in examinations conducted by the agency since its inception in 2018.

The questionnaire follows the appearance of NTA officials before the panel last week. During the meeting, officials reportedly maintained that there had been no leak from the agency's systems in the NEET-UG 2024 examination and argued that some questions circulating before the exam originated from a “guess paper”, sources said.

The committee is probing both the NEET controversy and allegations related to CBSE’s proposed OSM system. It has sought written responses from the two agencies, with CBSE asked to reply by June 8 and NTA by June 10.

Among the questions posed to the NTA is whether it conducted any independent inquiry into allegations of irregularities in NEET-UG 2024 apart from investigations carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The panel has also sought details on the agency’s staffing levels over the last three years, recruitments made since 2022, and annual reports submitted to the Department of Higher Education during the same period.

In addition, the committee has requested a status report on the implementation of all 101 recommendations made by the expert panel headed by K. Radhakrishnan. The committee was constituted by the Centre in June 2024 following the NEET controversy to recommend reforms aimed at ensuring transparent and secure conduct of examinations, including changes to NTA’s structure, examination processes and data security protocols.

The parliamentary panel has also raised a series of questions regarding CBSE’s OSM tender process. According to sources, it has sought explanations for reported changes across various Requests for Proposals (RFPs) issued for the system and asked whether due diligence was carried out before awarding the contract to COEMPT EduTeck.

The committee reportedly questioned whether CBSE was aware of past links between COEMPT EduTeck and Globarena Technologies, whose evaluation software came under scrutiny following the inquiry into the 2019 Telangana Intermediate examination results, and whether such associations were considered during the selection process.

The panel has also sought reasons for the removal or modification of several eligibility conditions in later RFPs. These include changes to provisions relating to poor past performance, blacklisting criteria, turnover requirements, data centre specifications, scanning technology standards and project experience benchmarks.

Among the specific issues raised are why the minimum scanning resolution requirement was reportedly reduced from 300 DPI to 200 DPI, why provisions relating to robotic scanners and spine-preserving answer-book scanning were altered, and why experience criteria shifted from handling large individual projects to cumulative project volumes.

Sources further said the committee has asked CBSE to share documents related to RFPs issued in February, May and August 2025 for the OSM project, alleging that the Board has not yet furnished the requested records.

The panel has also sought details of action taken on observations made during the OSM system’s dry run and whether those findings were shared with or discussed by the Ministry of Education.

Both CBSE and NTA are yet to submit their responses to the committee, sources added.