New Delhi, September 5: The Delhi High Court has sought responses from the Centre and the National Testing Agency (NTA) on a petition challenging the decision to conduct the UGC-NET June 2026 English examination again.
Justice Jasmeet Singh issued notices to the authorities following a plea filed by candidate Parul Sheoran, who has questioned NTA’s decision to re-conduct the English paper.The fresh examination is scheduled for September 9, along with the Commerce paper, while the Sociology examination is scheduled for September 10.
The petitioner has challenged an NTA notice issued on August 16, arguing that the decision to hold another English examination was unreasonable and procedurally unfair. The plea also alleges that the grounds and material behind the decision were not adequately made public.
Sheoran has sought cancellation of the re-examination and requested that the authorities process the results of the English paper already conducted.
The plea also invokes the constitutional guarantee of equality under Article 14.As an alternative, the petitioner has sought a refund of the examination fee paid for the original test if the re-examination is allowed.
She has also requested that candidates opting to appear for the fresh examination should not be charged an additional fee.The UGC-NET June 2026 examination was conducted from June 22 to June 30 across 87 subjects.
The test determines eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship, Assistant Professor positions and PhD admissions, subject to applicable rules.Following complaints concerning the English, Commerce and Sociology papers, the NTA constituted a committee to examine the reported discrepancies.
The committee identified various issues, including factual, typographical, translation and language-related errors, as well as concerns over the wording of some questions and repetition of questions from earlier examinations.
The High Court had earlier, on August 31, asked the authorities to consider the issue of refunding the examination fee.The matter has now been listed for further hearing on October 6, when the court is expected to consider the responses of the Centre and NTA.
The court’s notice does not amount to a final ruling on the validity of the re-examination, and the outcome will depend on the submissions and material placed before it.
