Punjab’s Aryan Gupta and Haryana’s Panshul Bansal have emerged as the joint toppers in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, scoring 715 out of 720, as the National Testing Agency announced that 11.21 lakh candidates qualified for undergraduate medical admissions this year.
A total of 19 candidates scored 700 or above, while 138 secured 690 or more. More than 93 percent of those scoring above 690 were first-time candidates, and women accounted for over 58 percent of all successful candidates.
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Among Malayalis, Johan Job of Changanassery, who appeared from Karnataka, secured the 69th All India Rank, while B. Neeraj from Karunagappally emerged as the Kerala topper with the 89th rank. No other Malayali featured in the national top 100.
The exam, originally held on May 9, was cancelled following allegations of a paper leak and was reconducted on June 21. The CBI is investigating the case. The NTA said results were declared on schedule to ensure medical admissions and counselling remain on track.
While the number of qualified candidates fell from 12.36 lakh last year to 11.21 lakh, the number of test-takers also dropped to nearly 20 lakh, keeping the overall qualifying rate at around 56 percent. Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of successful candidates with over 1.7 lakh qualifiers, while Lakshadweep had the fewest with 43.
Category-wise, 5.12 lakh OBC-NCL, 2.91 lakh General, 1.59 lakh SC, 95,026 EWS, and 63,716 ST candidates qualified. NEET-UG scores will be used for admission to around 1.08 lakh MBBS seats, besides courses in Dentistry, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha.
Following the paper leak controversy, the Centre has announced that future NEET-UG examinations will be conducted in computer-based mode instead of the traditional pen-and-paper format.
