NEET aspirant seeks Nagpur centre as top choice, allotted Abu Dhabi days before re-test; NTA responds

A student from Nagpur set to appear for the NEET re-examination was allotted an exam centre in Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates, days before the test on Sunday, June 21.

The aspirant had opted for Nagpur as his preferred city for the examination, scheduled to be held on Sunday. However, he was allotted an overseas centre, an error which was later addressed by the National Testing Agency (NTA), ANI news agency reported.

However, the incident initially led to uncertainty for the candidate’s family, who said that he did not have a passport, nor did they have enough time to obtain one. “We are completely unable to send our child abroad for the exam. He does not even have a passport, and there is no time left to make travel arrangements,” the student’s father, Mohammad Talib, told ANI. Reacting to the error, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched criticism against the NTA, saying the agency was “testing the patience of the country.”

“A system that can’t provide a center in a child’s own city but can send them abroad instead—it has no right to conduct exams,” the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said in a post on X.

However, when the student downloaded the admit card for the rescheduled examination, he discovered that his centre had been shifted to the Abu Dhabi Indian School in the UAE, according to the ANI report. The student’s family said he had opted for Nagpur as his first choice while filling out the application form, followed by Wardha and Bhandara.

After they discovered the discrepancy, the student’s family lodged a complaint with the NTA helpline. The agency acknowledged the error and assured them that they would issue a revised admit card after verifying all details. The NTA director general Abhishek Singh later told ANI that the candidate had been allotted a centre in Nagpur.

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Rahul further called for a “sensitive, responsible, and accountable education system and exam authority.”

Former Maharashtra education minister Dr. Anees Ahmed also slammed the error as a “serious lapse” had urged the agency to immediately rectify it by allotting the student a centre in Nagpur or a city nearby.

This comes even as the NTA has implemented security and logistical arrangements for the smooth and transparent conduct of the re-examinations. The exam materials are being transported under strict security protocols in GPS-enabled vehicles along with police escorts, according to ANI. Additional security measures are in place at the exam centres, including CCTV surveillance, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication and real-time monitoring systems.

“Records show that on May 21, the candidate logged in and changed his examination city preferences, selecting Abu Dhabi as the first choice and Dubai as the second. The same IP address, traced to Nagpur, was used to download his admit card for the May 3 examination. He also updated his bank details for a refund on May 24, accessed the city intimation slip on June 10 and downloaded his admit card on June 16 using the same IP address,” the official said.

“We have complete logs of his activities on the NEET portal. Despite downloading the admit card on June 16, neither the candidate nor his family contacted the NTA and did not send any mail regarding this. Instead, his father approached the media on June 20, just a day before the exam. We are now allotting him a centre in Nagpur, but our cyber team is examining whether the changes were made by the candidate himself or by someone who may have gained access to his account,” the official added.

The official said this was the only instance in which an Indian candidate had been allotted an overseas centre and maintained that no other such cases had come to light. “We have accommodated requests from several candidates seeking changes in examination centres at the last minute,” the official said.