Delhi High Court Directs NTA to Form Expert Panel For UGC NET History Answer Key Scrutiny

The Delhi High Court has directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to constitute an expert committee to review alleged errors in the history paper of the UGC NET December 2025 cycle. The order comes amid an ongoing controversy over discrepancies in the question paper conducted between December 2025 and January 2026. The court’s intervention follows complaints from candidates who claimed inaccuracies in the final answer key impacted their results.

The dispute arose after the provisional answer key was released on January 14, prompting several candidates to raise objections. They alleged that nine questions and two translations in the history paper were incorrect. However, when the final results were declared on February 4, candidates claimed that no detailed clarification was provided regarding the objections submitted, leading to dissatisfaction among aspirants who felt their concerns had not been adequately addressed.

One of the candidates, Kartikey Kahol, approached the High Court, stating that he had missed qualifying for the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) by just two marks due to allegedly incorrect answer options. During the hearing, the court observed that certain options in the question paper were so similar that they could have reasonably caused confusion. The bench directed the NTA to award two additional marks to the petitioner, which now enables him to qualify for the JRF.

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In its order, the court mandated that an expert committee be formed within four weeks to examine the grievances raised by candidates. The committee has been directed to take a reasoned decision within four weeks thereafter. The court also noted that the issue was not limited to a single petitioner, pointing out that as many as 60,777 candidates had appeared for the history paper and could potentially be affected by the alleged discrepancies.

Several students stated that while submitting objections, they cited standard academic sources, including works by noted historians such as Satish Chandra and Abhishek Yadav. They alleged that despite paying a fee of Rs 200 per question to challenge the answer key, there was no transparency regarding how subject experts evaluated their representations or why certain objections were rejected.

With the High Court mandating an independent review, uncertainty remains over whether the December 2025 UGC NET History results will be revised for a broader set of candidates. The outcome of the expert committee’s findings could have significant implications for aspirants seeking eligibility for lectureship and research fellowships, while also raising broader questions about transparency and accountability in national-level competitive examinations.

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