Responding to the issue of allotment of a centre in Abu Dhabi to a candidate from Nagpur, the National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday said the city change request was made through the candidate’s own registered login during the open correction window and it had later acted on his request to change the centre.
Following the rescheduling of NEET (UG) 2026 to June 21, the examination-city correction window was reopened to assist candidates, the agency said.
“Around 3.2 lakh candidates used the correction window, and NTA allotted the preferred examination city to over 99.5 per cent of them,” it said in a post on X.
On the “Abu Dhabi” query, the NTA said its web-activity records indicate that the city change in the case was made through the candidate’s own registered login during the open correction window, with a consistent single-user access pattern.
The agency said that despite the Abu Dhabi centre being chosen by the candidate, it received an informal request on the evening of June 19, just 48 hours before the exam, to change the centre to Nagpur.
“NTA personnel immediately initiated the change and contacted the candidate’s father on June 19 evening itself to help them complete the formal process,” it said.
“NTA has observed that on 3 occasions, one – the centre was changed to Abu Dhabi using candidate’s credentials and twice it was previewed that the centre is Abu Dhabi, the agency said.
“Despite that NTA has accorded to aspirant’s request and the change of centre was actioned,” it said.
Calling it a “student-first” approach, the agency said its priority is that no candidate misses the examination over an administrative doubt.
Abdulla Talib from Nagpur in Maharashtra was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, prompting his parents to raise the issue with the NTA and seek a correction.
Talib had given preference to Nagpur, Wardha, and Bhandara centres for the examination.
However, when he received his examination card issued by the NTA, he was shocked to find that he was allotted an examination centre in Abu Dhabi, his father, Dr Mohammed Talib, told a news channel.
The mix-up came to light on a day when a nationwide mock drill was underway across the country on Saturday ahead of the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination as part of the efforts to ensure smooth, secure and transparent conduct of the medical entrance test.
The re-examination will be conducted on June 21 from 2 pm to 5.15 pm in the pen-and-paper mode across 551 cities in India and 14 cities abroad for over 22.79 lakh candidates.
