UGC NET June 2026: The Delhi High Court has issued notice to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Central government on a plea challenging the re-conduct of the UGC-NET June 2026 English paper. Justice Jasmeet Singh directed authorities to decide on refunding examination fees and listed the matter for further hearing on October 6.
Petitioner Parul Sheoran sought to quash the NTA’s August 16 notice ordering a re-exam, calling the decision arbitrary and violative of Article 14. The plea also demanded that results for the already-conducted English paper be declared.
The NTA had cited factual, typographical, and translation errors in the English, Commerce, and Sociology papers. The English and Commerce exams will be re-conducted on September 9, and Sociology on September 10.
Background of the Case
The petition further argued that the NTA’s decision was taken without disclosing the material forming its basis, and without following the procedure prescribed under the UGC-NET June 2026 Information Bulletin. The plea termed the move unreasonable and procedurally unfair, urging the court to protect the interests of candidates who had already appeared for the exam in good faith.
Sheoran also requested that if the court permits the re-exam to proceed, authorities be directed to refund the fee already paid for the original exam, while preserving candidates’ right to appear in the re-conducted test without any additional payment.
What Triggered the Re-Exam
The NTA had conducted the UGC-NET June 2026 examination from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects, determining eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), assistant professor posts, and PhD admissions. Following complaints, a review committee found the English, Commerce, and Sociology papers contained multiple errors — misspelt names of prominent scholars, garbled book titles, faulty question stems, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and repeated questions from earlier exams.
Based on these findings, the NTA ordered a re-conduct of all three papers, prompting affected candidates to move court against the decision.
