Pune: National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday declared the RE-NEET-UG-2026 result of a Pune student (18) to enable him participate in the revised Centralised Admission Process (CAP) Round-I for the MBBS/BDS courses in the state quota, acting on an interim order of Bombay high court.The testing agency had withheld the student’s result after CBI, probing the NEET-UG-2026 paper leak case, objected to declaration of his result based on the allegation that he was among the “direct beneficiaries” of the leaked paper.Advocate Pooja Thorat, representing the petitioner, told TOI, “The student has been declared as qualified for the admission rounds. He will be a part of the CAP over the next two days.” The admission process ends on Aug 29.The HC bench of Justice R I Chagla and Justice Firdosh P Pooniwalla said on Aug 25, “… We are not coming in the way of the CBI proceedings, which shall be pursued by the CBI. Further, we are not making any observation as to the role played by the petitioner in the NEET 2026 examination as that is not within the purview of this court in presently considering the writ petition, considering the interim relief sought for by the petitioner.”On May 12, NTA cancelled the NEET-UG 2026 exam held on May 3 in the wake of a paper leak. It conducted the RE-NEET-UG-2026 on June 21 and declared the results on July 16. In its chargesheet filed on July 20, CBI did not name the Pune student as an accused and referred him among witnesses, along with similarly placed other students.Thorat told TOI, “We brought to the court’s notice two orders passed on Aug 21 by the principal bench (Mumbai) and the Nagpur bench that considered similar requests for declaration of results to enable the petitioners concerned participate in the CAP. The only difference between those and our matter was that the CBI objected to the declaration of result in our case.”The CBI maintained its objection and sought time to file an affidavit in reply to the petition. The NTA said it acted at the behest of CBI objecting to the declaration of result.The bench said the prior orders passed by the principal bench and the Nagpur bench were required to be considered as they had taken a view that, in the event, the petitioners had not been named as accused and only appear as witnesses in the chargesheet, indulgence was required to be shown to the petitioners.“The objection is that the petitioner is a direct beneficiary of the leaked papers in the aforesaid NEET 2026 examination. This would be required to be established in the proceedings instituted by CBI,” the bench said.
