UGC-NET irregularities: NSUI stages protest in Delhi, clashes break out
NSUI members protested in Delhi against the NTA over UGC-NET 2026 irregularities, and clashes broke out at the site. The row deepened after the agency ordered fresh tests and students demanded accountability for the errors.
- Aug 17, 2026,
- Updated Aug 17, 2026, 2:44 PM IST
The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) staged a protest against the National Testing Agency (NTA) in Delhi on August 17, demanding accountability over alleged irregularities in the 2026 UGC-NET examination. Clashes later broke out between security personnel and protesters at the site.
The protest followed the NTA's decision to conduct fresh examinations for English, Commerce and Sociology after receiving complaints about errors in the question papers.
According to the NTA, a committee was constituted to examine the complaints and found several factual, typographical and translation-related errors. These included misspelt names of scholars, distorted book titles, problems in question wording, grammatical mistakes and gender and number agreement errors. The committee also found that a significant number of questions had been repeated from earlier examinations.
Based on the panel's recommendations, the agency cancelled the earlier examinations for the three subjects and announced fresh tests.
The NSUI criticised the decision, arguing that students were being made to bear the consequences of errors committed by the examination agency. The student organisation also questioned whether the papers had been leaked before the examination and demanded accountability from the NTA leadership.
"The mistake is NTA's, but the punishment is for the students," the NSUI said, adding that thousands of candidates would now have to appear for the examination again in September.
The organisation also said that the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan should not be treated as the end of the accountability process and called for responsibility to be fixed within the NTA.
The UGC-NET June 2026 examination was conducted by the NTA from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects. The examination is used to determine eligibility for Junior Research Fellowships and Assistant Professor positions, as well as for admission to PhD programmes.
The fresh examinations will be held on September 9 and 10. The English paper is scheduled for September 9 in the first shift from 9 am to 12 pm, followed by Commerce in the second shift from 3 pm to 6 pm. The Sociology examination will be conducted on September 10 in the first shift from 9 am to 12 pm.