Bizarre NEET admit card error: Aspirant gets Abu Dhabi centre instead of Nagpur, NTA blames 'technical glitch' after online outrage

Just hours before the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, a bizarre admit card mix-up involving a student from Nagpur sparked outrage online, raised fresh questions about the National Testing Agency's preparedness and handed critics another example of the examination body's ongoing credibility crisis. The National Testing Agency (NTA) is set to conduct a re-examination of the 2026 NEET-UG exam on June 22 (Sunday) after the test was cancelled on May 3 due to a damning paper leak.

From Nagpur to Abu Dhabi: NEET exam centre controversy explodes before re-examination

The controversy began when a NEET aspirant from Nagpur downloaded his revised admit card and discovered that his examination centre had been allotted not in Maharashtra, but in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The student had earlier appeared at a centre in Nagpur during the original NEET-UG examination conducted on May 3. Following the cancellation of the exam over the paper leak scandal and the announcement of a re-test, he expected to receive a centre in or around his home city.

Instead, the new admit card listed Abu Dhabi Indian School in the UAE.

According to the family, the candidate had selected Nagpur as his first preference during registration, followed by Wardha and Bhandara. The unexpected overseas allocation left them stunned.

"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," his father Mohammad Talib said.

Online controversy explodes

The incident quickly gained traction on social media, with students, parents and political leaders questioning how such an error could occur during a high-stakes examination already under intense scrutiny.

Rahul Gandhi slams NTA: 'Just testing the patience of the country's children and their parents'

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi seized on the controversy, arguing that it reflected deeper problems within India's examination system. In a post on X, the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LOP) said, "No passport, no money in the family to send him abroad, and no time left now. He cried all night and is refusing to take the exam--what kind of stress is this, can you even imagine?"

Referring to the student's ordeal, Gandhi said no candidate should have to face such uncertainty a day before a crucial national examination. "How did this even happen? Yesterday, no student should have had any complaint about not being able to reach their center. The NTA is actually just testing the patience of the country's children and their parents," he said.

"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," he added, slamming the NTA.

NTA allots new centre to student

As criticism mounted, the NTA moved to contain the fallout. NTA Director General Abhishek Singh later confirmed that the issue had been resolved and attributed the mix-up to a technical glitch in the system.

"The issue has been resolved, and the candidate has now been allotted a centre in Nagpur," Singh told ANI.

The incident comes at a sensitive moment for the NTA, which has spent weeks trying to reassure students that the June 21 re-examination will be conducted smoothly after the original test was scrapped following allegations of a coordinated paper leak.