NEET Re-Test 2026: Amid criticism over the allotment of an Abu Dhabi examination centre to a Nagpur candidate for the NEET UG 2026 re-test, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday said its records show that the city change was made through the candidate’s own registered login during the correction window.
The clarification came after NEET aspirant Abdullah Mohammad Talib was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, UAE, for the June 21 re-examination despite having opted for centres in Nagpur, Wardha and Bhandara, raising questions over the allotment process just a day before the test.
In a statement, the NTA said it had reopened the examination-city correction window after rescheduling NEET (UG) 2026 to June 21 in order to help candidates revise their preferred city choices.
Highlighting the scale of the exercise, the agency said, “Around 3.2 lakh candidates used the correction window, and NTA allotted the preferred examination city to over 99.5% of them.”
On the Nagpur candidate’s case, the agency said, “NTA’s web-activity records indicate that the city change in this case was made through the candidate’s own registered login during the open correction window, with a consistent single-user access pattern.”
The agency further said it had observed three instances linked to the candidate’s account. “NTA has observed that on 3 occasions, one – the centre was changed to Abu Dhabi using candidate’s credentials and twice it was previewed that the centre is Abu Dhabi,” the statement said.
According to the NTA, it later received an informal request from the candidate’s side on the evening of June 19, just 48 hours before the examination, seeking a change of centre to Nagpur.
“Despite the Abu Dhabi centre being chosen by the candidate, the NTA received an informal request on the evening of June 19 (just 48 hours before the exam) to change the centre to Nagpur. NTA personnel immediately initiated the change and contacted the candidate’s father on 19th evening itself to help them complete the formal process,” the agency said.
The NTA said it accepted the request and changed the examination centre. “Despite that NTA has accorded to aspirant’s request and the change of centre was actioned,” the statement said.
Describing its approach, the agency said, “The NTA’s priority is that no candidate misses the examination over an administrative doubt.”
