Experts say parental pressure, competition driving some aspirants to doctor their results
Officials state that there has been no reported technical glitch in NEET UG results this year. Representation Pic/iStock
The Maharashtra Health and Technical Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) Cell has once again brought to light cases of mark sheet tampering by medical aspirants trying to bag a seat in their dream college. While such complaints have been registered year after year, officials at the cell have already come across at least five such possible cases within two months, since the National Eligibility Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET UG results came out in June 2025.
Of these, there have been three cases of mark sheets showing different results. Students claimed mark sheet duplication, stating that the mark sheet they downloaded from the National Testing Agency (NTA) website and the one they saw the next day on the portal did not match. While the CET Cell directly gets students’ scores from the national agency, pupils wrote emails and raised concerns with the cell, asking them to look into the matter. Such queries are forwarded to the NTA.
mid-day came across a case where a student from the Beed district claimed to have received two distinct mark sheets, one where their total score out of 720 was 502 and the second where it was 30. While the CET Cell forwarded the complaint, the national agency confirmed that the student had scored low and the second mark sheet was doctored. The 19-year-old student, who claimed to have taken NEET-UG for the third time, will now be ineligible for MBBS and BDS owing to the low score.
“This year, we even had a student send emails from a fake NTA account he had created. The faux mail claimed that the agency had not given the student the right marks. The student even forged QR codes on the mark sheet. This falsified code redirected you to the tampered mark sheet to fool the authorities. However, we raise all such discrepancies with the national agency to avoid any falsifications,” said a senior official from the CET Cell.
No glitch
Officials state that there has been no reported technical glitch in NEET UG results this year, and all cases have been referred to the NTA since July. The NTA is yet to respond to three of these cases. “Oftentimes, these students have scored too low to qualify for MBBS or BDS courses to begin with, so the students miss out on that year’s admission process. For aspirants under so much stress, losing out on an academic year is punishment enough, which is why we do not pursue legal action,” added the CET official.
Counsellors and academic experts state that this reaction by the students is typically a result of parental and peer pressure. “Often, parental expectations and competition among peers affect the students, which is why they resort to cheating. However, this also happens because the parents are completely oblivious to the medical admission procedure and don’t take the time to understand what their ward is doing. The forged mark sheets may be intended to fool the parents rather than the testing agencies,” said Ruiee Kapoor, a medical student and parent representative.
This year, as many as 6848 MBBS candidates have already joined government and private colleges across the state, leaving a vacancy of only 1291 seats. For BDS, as many as 961 have confirmed their admissions, resulting in 1764 vacancies.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
