Why the IAF Has Been Enlisted for NEET UG Re-exam

The Indian Air Force has been enlisted to assist in the transportation of question papers for the NEET UG 2026 re-exam scheduled for June 21, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday. This comes amid the increasing scrutiny that the re-examination process is being put under, with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) directly monitoring the preparations

This unprecedented step signifies a trust deficit in India’s civil machinery and other stakeholders who are usually entrusted to carry out the examination.

The NEET UG 2026 examination held on May 3 was cancelled after a paper leak. The incident triggered massive protests around the country. The National Testing Agency (NTA), the organisation responsible for conducting the exam, came under heavy criticism for its failure in conducting the exams fairly. Preliminary investigations have revealed multiple points of leakage in the NEET examination process. This has spurred the government to rope in the defence forces to improve security arrangements.

Why The IAF Has Been Called

According to PTI, the involvement of the air force was discussed at a high level meeting between Pradhan and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in the presence of senior IAF officers.

As per the report, the IAF will be tasked with transporting the NEET UG question papers from the printing press to destinations across the country. The oncoming monsoon season during the month of June has been an important consideration while deciding to hand over these responsibilities to the IAF. So far, the question papers were transported by the Indian Postal Services.

The problem of transporting question papers only arises because the NEET UG examination is conducted in pen and paper mode, unlike JEE which utilises a computer based testing (CBT) model. From next year onwards the NEET examination has also been slated to be conducted using the CBT model.    

The move to involve the defence forces, an institution tasked with national security, in transporting question papers underscores the failure of traditional organisations like the police and the NTA to keep the paper leak gangs in check.

Response From Experts

"Have all existing systems in the country failed that this has to be resorted to? If culprits are not punished quickly, the system gets used to corruption. This is exactly what is happening with NEET," Major General Raju Chauhan (retd) tweeted.

Rohit Vats, a geopolitical expert, called this move aimed purely at optics. He said that the government was banking on the credibility of the defence forces to restore public trust in the examination process.

Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi took a swipe at the government over the possible move. "Army picks up the NEET exam paper from the printing centre. Bullet-proof vehicles take them to the nearest airbase. IAF then flies these papers to all destinations," Chaturvedi tweeted.

"Let's use Navy submarines to take answer sheets for scanning and upload to servers for OSM," the Maharashtra MP further said.

The Gaps in the System

The NTA outsources most of its work due to manpower constraints. This introduces a great deal of human intervention in the examination process and thus increases the opportunities for leakages to occur in the system.

According to a reply in Parliament in 2024, the NTA operates with 22 employees on deputation, 38 contractual staffers, and 138 outsourced workers.

Now, it is up to the CBI, which is investigating the May 3 leak, to uncover whether the leak occurred at the printing or the transportation stage.