New Delhi

As opposition leaders targeted the National Testing Agency (NTA) over lapses in three papers of the UGC-NET examination, agency sources said internal processes and protocols are being reviewed to ensure that all exams are fair and error-free in the future.

The agency proactively looked into the complainants and decided to conduct re-tests, with all corrective measures being taken in the overall interest of candidates and to strengthen the foundation of a more accountable examination system, the sources said.

The NTA on Sunday night announced re-tests for three papers of the UGC-NET June 2026 examination -- English, Commerce and Sociology -- following complaints about several errors in the papers.

The English and Commerce papers will be held on September 9, while the exam for the Sociology paper will be conducted the next day.

The NTA conducted the UGC-NET June 2026 examination from June 22 to 30 across 87 subjects for the award of Junior Research Fellowship, eligibility for Assistant Professor, and admission to PhD programmes.

"The task of an examination-conducting agency is not only to conduct error-free examinations, but also to act promptly and honestly whenever an anomaly is found," a source said.

The NTA has taken the responsibility of acknowledging that something had gone wrong in these papers and for taking corrective action, at cost to itself, rather than papering over the problem, the source added.

The agency conducted examinations across 184 subjects and 24,700 questions, with the overwhelming majority found to be sound. It proactively identified issues in three subjects and is correcting them transparently in the interest of honest candidates and a fair, accurate and error-free examination system, the source said.

The NTA is using the experience to strengthen its internal processes and protocols at the stages of setting, moderating, translating and composing question papers, so that errors of this kind are prevented at source and responsibility for the lapses is fixed, he said.

"The willingness to identify problems proactively, to admit them, and to act, even where action is difficult, is itself the foundation of a more accountable examination system.

"An agency that conducts examinations at this scale will occasionally encounter problems; what defines its credibility is that it finds them, owns them, and corrects them in the interest of candidates," the source said.

Several opposition leaders hit out at the government over this issue, which comes months after the cancellation and re-test of the NEET-UG examination by the NTA following a paper leak.

Even the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, expressed serious concern over the issue, with its National General Secretary Virendra Singh Solanki saying students' future cannot be compromised and the NTA must be held accountable.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi targeted the Modi government and demanded that the NTA's leadership be held accountable. In a post on X, he alleged that "this is no longer an education system. It is an extraction machine".

He said the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan was the first step, not the last. "NTA's leadership must be held accountable too," he demanded.

Pradhan had to resign as Union education minister following large-scale protests over the NEET-UG paper leak issue.

Several other Congress leaders also slammed the government, saying students were paying the price for the NTA's inefficiency and that the party will not stop until Prime Minister Narendra Modi answered for students' years being "stolen".

Earlier in the day, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) staged a protest outside the NTA office here over alleged irregularities in the UGC-NET June 2026 examination and demanded that the testing agency be scrapped.

In a post on X, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the issue was not a "minor error" but a failure that was costing students their time, money, mental peace and opportunities.

The NTA said it received several complaints about multiple errors in three papers, following which it formed a committee to look into the lapses.

READ MORE:Afreen Zeb shaped India's content creator market

"The committee identified the anomalies in the three subjects and recommended that, in the interest of holding a fair and error-free examination, these three papers should be re-conducted. It was recommended that papers carrying such defects did not meet the standards of fairness and error-free examination," the NTA said.