E-Paper
Aryan Gupta, Panshul Bansal top NEET-UG with 715/720 as 1.1 million clear exam
The highest score of 715 out of 720 was obtained jointly by Aryan Gupta of Punjab and Panshul Bansal of Haryana
Around 1.1 million out of nearly two million candidates qualified for nearly 137,000 MBBS seats and other undergraduate dental, AYUSH and allied programmes after clearing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET-UG examination 2026, according to results announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Thursday night.
The highest score of 715 out of 720 was obtained jointly by Aryan Gupta of Punjab and Panshul Bansal of Haryana. Among the top 10 NEET-UG 2026 rank holders, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar and Maharashtra each had two candidates, while Haryana and Uttar Pradesh had one each.
Women outshone men, with 58% of the qualified candidates being female. The majority of the top-performing candidates were between 17 and 19. “Women also qualified at a higher rate than men: 56.8 per cent of women who appeared qualified, as against 55.1 per cent of men,” NTA said in a statement.
Also Read: NEET UG 2026: In final answer key, NTA drops 1 physics question, awards 4 bonus marks
NEET results draw curtains on paper leak row
The results draw the curtains on a tumultuous examination season that saw the NEET-UG cancelled over a leak of multiple question papers, a nationwide uproar, and a re-examination held on June 21. A total of 138 candidates scored above 690 marks out of 720. “Of the 138, a total of 99% are between 17 and 19 years of age and over 93% appeared for NEET (UG) for the first time,” NTA said, adding that results were declared in time so that the “medical-admission and counselling calendar for candidates stays on track.”
NTA has a history of announcing NEET-UG results late at night. In 2024, it declared the original NEET-UG results at around 10 pm on June 4, released the results of the re-test conducted for 1,563 candidates on the evening of June 30, and issued revised scorecards at around 8:30–9 pm on July 26 after the Supreme Court directed it to revise the results by withdrawing marks awarded for a disputed Physics question.
This year, the agency announced the NEET-UG 2026 results at around 10:30 pm on July 16. A total of 19 candidates scored above 700 and 1,492 candidates scored 650 and above. “A total of 10,160 candidates scored 600 and above and 90,780 candidates scored 500 and above,” NTA said.
NTA data on candidates
The NTA also released detailed data on the number of candidates registered, appeared and qualified by gender and category. Of the 2,279,743 candidates who registered for NEET-UG 2026, 1,999,895 appeared and 1,121,185 qualified. Among those who qualified were 654,049 female candidates, 467,134 male candidates and two third-gender candidates. Category-wise, 291,133 candidates from the General category, 95,026 from the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), 512,014 from the Other Backward Classes–Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL), 159,296 Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, 63,716 Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates and 3,666 Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) candidates qualified the examination.
The category-wise cut-offs showed that the qualifying mark for the unreserved/EWS category was 213 marks (50th percentile), while candidates in the OBC, SC and ST categories required at least 177 marks (40th percentile) to qualify. For Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD), the cut-off ranged from 194 marks for the UR/EWS-PwBD category (45th percentile) to 177 marks for OBC-PwBD and SC-PwBD, and 178 marks for ST-PwBD (all at the 40th percentile).
Over 2 million appeared for NEET re-exam
Nearly two million medical aspirants appeared for the re-examination on June 21 after the original test was held on May 3. NTA cancelled the exam on May 12 and announced the re-test on May 15 after receiving an email on May 8 alleging a leak and noting overlaps between a circulated guess paper and the May 3 question paper. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the alleged leak, has arrested 13 people so far and will file its charge sheet this month.
The provisional answer keys for the examination was released on July 13, 2026 and the objection window was closed on July 15, 2026. The final answer key for the re-examination was released on Thursday night.
In the final answer keys, NTA dropped one question, while another had two correct answers - both in Physics questions. “One of the disputed questions involved a Vernier calipers problem that asked candidates to determine the length of a wire based on the instrument's reading. This question was dropped from the final answer key. The second question on electromagnetic waves had two correct options, instead of a single correct answer as originally indicated,” said Keshav Agarwal, vice-president of Delhi-based Coaching Federation of India (CFI) which has 1,000 coaching institutes as its members.
As a result, NTA awarded a total of four marks as bonus to all NEET-UG 2026 candidates, including those who have not attempted the question. It also awarded four marks to all candidates who have either marked any of the two correct answers for a question on electromagnetic waves.
It accepted multiple correct answers for two questions without dropping any question in 2025, and dropped one question while accepting multiple correct answers for two questions in 2024.
