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NEET-UG retest students face trouble accessing admit cards

Some students said server overload and the linking of refund verification with the admit card download process have added to their anxiety days before the exam.

Published on: Jun 16, 2026, 09:35:38 IST
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Difficulties in accessing examination admit cards for the NEET-UG exam to be held on June 21, has triggered frustration among thousands of students, with many taking to social media to complain about website glitches, and confusion over the examination fee refund process.

Youths protest in Jaipur over the alleged NEET-2026 examination paper leak. (PTI)
Youths protest in Jaipur over the alleged NEET-2026 examination paper leak. (PTI)

NTA officials said the website was functioning normally. “Over 7 lakh (700,000) students have downloaded their admit cards. Nearly 6,000 concurrent users are using the NEET portal against our capacity to handle one lakh users at a time,” a senior NTA official said, asking not to be named.

“It took around three days to download 2.2 million admit cards last time too and the rate of downloading is usual. We are monitoring the load.”

Still, candidates reported repeated session expirations, timeout errors and blank screens while attempting to complete mandatory bank account verification linked to refunds and download their hall tickets.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) began issuing admit cards on Sunday evening for the June 21 re-examination, which is being conducted after the original May 3 test was cancelled after it emerged that the test paper may have leaked. Around 2.27 million candidates appeared for that exam.

“I tried downloading it on Monday morning thinking traffic would be lower than Sunday, but I cannot even log in. It says my credentials are wrong when they are not. The ‘forgot password’ link is unavailable and I am scared that repeated attempts may block my account,” the student said, requesting anonymity. “This is causing more disturbance in my studies and adding onto the anxiety already caused by the re-NEET.”

A student from Bokaro said he had tried “15 to 20 times” but kept receiving a “please try again after some time” message.Another Bokaro-based aspirant said she repeatedly encountered blank pages and “service unavailable” messages.

“My question to NTA is, if bank details need to be submitted again and verified in order to download the admit card, what was the point of releasing the refund link days before the admit card?” she asked.

Lipi Verma said she had changed her examination city from Bihar to Delhi and was anxious to know the exact location of her centre.

“The refund portal just kept showing a new captcha every time I clicked. There was zero progress. This is definitely affecting my schedule and creating unnecessary panic,” she said.

A Delhi-based student who eventually managed to access the admit card said the process took almost eight hours spread across Sunday night and Monday.

“If you click that your bank details do not need updating, the site hangs. If you try updating them, it leads to a blank screen. I finally downloaded the admit card after multiple attempts,” the student said.

In a post on X on Monday evening, NTA said all refunds would be credited directly to the bank accounts updated on the portal and warned candidates against fraudulent calls or messages claiming to expedite the process. It said candidates facing difficulties or those who had submitted incorrect details would get another opportunity to correct them after the examination.

The NTA official cited above said several students had entered incorrect bank details earlier, prompting the agency to reopen the facility. “Everybody will get the admit cards by Tuesday or Wednesday.”

The original deadline for submitting preferred bank account details for refunds was May 27. NTA later reopened the facility after receiving complaints from candidates who had furnished incorrect information.

The May 3 NEET-UG 2026 examination was cancelled on May 12 after investigations found overlaps between a pre-circulated guess paper and the actual question paper. CBI is probing the leak.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanjay Maurya

Sanjay Maurya is a Principal Correspondent with Hindustan Times, where he covers education, with a focus on school and higher education, competitive examinations, education policy and governance. Working as part of the National Bureau, he is based in New Delhi and reports on the Ministry of Education and covers various statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE and NCTE and autonomous bodies like CBSE and NCERT. His reporting also tracks the implementation of key government reforms and policies from school education to higher education including in IITs, NITs, IIMs, central and state universities, and their impact on students and educational institutions. His reporting on the irregularities and rushed implementation of CBSE's On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for evaluation of Class 12 board exams 2026, triggered administrative action, leading to the transfer of the board's two senior-most officials and the constitution of a committee to probe alleged irregularities in procurement process of the system. He joined Hindustan Times in December 2024. Prior to that, he had a three-year stint at Careers360, where he reported on school and higher education, entrance examinations, admissions, rankings and various education policies involving universities and professional education bodies. Over the years, Maurya has reported extensively on major developments in India's education sector, including the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, reforms in the National Testing Agency (NTA) following the NEET-UG 2024 controversy, changes in school education, higher education regulation, and the evolution of entrance examinations such as NEET, JEE and CUET. He regularly produces data-driven and explanatory stories based on government documents, parliamentary proceedings, court records and official data. His focus remains on helping readers understand how education policies and institutional decisions affect millions of students, teachers and educational institutions across the country.

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