A dispute over marks obtained by a candidate from Gujarat in this year’s NEET (UG) re-examination held in June has brought the “weeding out” examination rule of the National Testing Agency (NTA) under scrutiny.The NTA, which conducts the NEET-UG for admission to undergraduate medical colleges across the country, retains examination records for 90 days after the declaration of results.This “weeding out rule” means that a candidate who has challenged the authenticity of the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) answer sheet attributed to her could lose crucial evidence after the 90-day period has passed.Since the NTA declared the results of the re-examination on July 16, the 90-day window is on the verge of closing. The Supreme Court has agreed to urgently list the candidate’s plea on Thursday (October 15).The NEET (UG) 2026 was held on June 21 after the original May 3 examination was scrapped following the leak of the question paper. The candidate, Shreya Chaudhari, has claimed that she should have been awarded 415 marks more than what she got in the result declared by the NTA on July 16.The Gujarat High Court rejected her earlier this month, and a Division Bench of the court dismissed her appeal on October 12.The matter now before the SC goes beyond the disputed 415 marks, and involves a broader question. How should rules on retention of administrative records operate when the authenticity of a key examination-related document is disputed in court?Story continues below this adThe NTA’s NEET (UG) 2026 Information Bulletin, under the heading “Weeding out Rules”, states that all records and documents relating to the examination will be preserved for 90 days from the date of declaration of the result. After the end of this period, they will be weeded out – and the agency will not entertain correspondence regarding them.How can this rule impact a student who has taken the competitive exam?“Weeding out” is the administrative term for disposing of records that an organisation is no longer required to retain under its applicable rules. These records can include examination documents relevant to a candidate’s result, as well as the records of the candidature and enrollment process.The 90-day deadline can, in theory, matter to candidates seeking to challenge the accuracy or authenticity of their recorded responses. “However, although the bulletin establishes a 90-day retention period, it does not by itself mean that every physical and digital record will be automatically destroyed at the particular date regardless of pending litigation or a court direction,” a well known competitive examination coach said.Story continues below this adAccording to this expert, “This policy has to be seen along with the other provisions in the bulletin on accessing recorded responses and challenging answer keys. Candidates are expected to use the prescribed post-examination process rather than assume that records will remain available indefinitely.”Experts providing coaching for competitive exams said that aspirants are informed about the rules during their preparations.To which exams conducted by the NTA does the 90-day rule apply?The 90-day rule is not a universal rule for all competitive examinations. Candidates must check the information bulletin for the weeding-out window that is applicable to their specific examination.Story continues below this adThe information bulletin of the UGC-NET June 2026 contained a similar provision, stating that records will be preserved for 90 days from the declaration of results. Separate information bulletins are published for other competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main) and the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-UG).“Each bulletin must be examined separately. Candidates must identify the exam authority, download the relevant year’s bulletin and check its provisions on recorded responses, access to answer sheets, grievance deadlines and retention of records,” the competitive exam expert quoted above said.But why does the NTA have to destroy examination records?An official said that the retention schedule sets a time limit for keeping examination records rather than preserving them indefinitely.Story continues below this ad“Competitive examinations generate large volumes of records, including OMR answer sheets, attendance records and other examination-related documents. A retention schedule allows the examining authority to manage and dispose of records in accordance with its prescribed rules,” the official said.More than 22.79 lakh candidates registered for the June 21 NEET (UG) re-test, and almost 20 lakh appeared for the exam.Under what circumstances can the destruction of OMR answersheets and other records be stopped?The 90-day period does not mean that a disputed answer sheet will be destroyed regardless of pending legal proceedings.Story continues below this adAt the same time, filing a complaint, an RTI application, or a petition in court also does not, by itself, guarantee that the NTA will suspend its record-disposal process, officials said.A candidate who believes that an answer sheet has been wrongly evaluated, incorrectly attributed, or tampered with should first use the grievance and verification mechanisms prescribed for the examination.If the dispute cannot be resolved and the original record is material to the case, the candidate can approach a court and seek an explicit interim direction requiring the NTA to preserve the original OMR sheet and associated records until the dispute is decided, officials said.“Such an explicit direction from a court is important because it removes the uncertainty over whether the record can be disposed of while proceedings are pending. Whether preservation is granted will depend on the facts, the applicable rules and the court’s assessment of the request…,” the official said.What happened in the case of the present petitioner?Story continues below this adIn Shreya Chaudhari’s case, the Gujarat High Court had directed the NTA to produce her original OMR sheet in a sealed cover. The sheet was subsequently opened in court and shown to her and her advocate.The High Court ultimately found no material discrepancy that was sufficient to displace the NTA’s record. After a Division Bench dismissed her appeal on October 12, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court, which agreed to list her plea urgently amid concerns about the retention deadline.“The SC’s decision to list the matter urgently should not be mistaken for an order staying the destruction of the record. An express direction from the court must be issued to ensure preservation,” a legal expert said.This expert added that this distinction matters in Shreya Chaudhari’s case because the dispute concerns the authenticity of the OMR responses attributed to her, not simply the evaluation of an answer.Story continues below this ad“If the original record is destroyed while the dispute remains unresolved, subsequent verification could become more difficult,” a coaching expert said.Do other examination authorities, including CBSE, CISCE, and UPSC, have similar rules for disposing of records?The NTA is not alone in prescribing a deadline for disposing of examination records.* Under the UPSC Record Retention Schedule, answer books and answer sheets are ordinarily retained for six months from the conclusion of the written examination or 45 days from the start of marksheet display, whichever is later. The rules separately provide for answer sheets connected with pending court cases, complaints, and RTI applications.* The CBSE’s published weeding-out rules generally prescribe three years for candidates’ answer books where no litigation is pending and provide for retaining answer books in cases under litigation until one year after the final judgment.* The CISCE’s published regulations state that ICSE answer scripts will not be retained beyond 60 days after results are declared.