How many exam paper leaks have happened in India?
Short answer
Compiled reporting counts more than 70 major leaks across 15 states in the seven years to the mid-2020s, affecting an estimated 1.7 crore candidates. There is no official government register of examination leaks, so every figure is a journalistic compilation rather than an official count, and definitions differ between compilers.
Verified · 4 cited sources
Start with the caveat, because it is the most important fact here: the Indian government does not publish a register of examination paper leaks. No ministry, agency or examining body maintains a public dataset of how many examinations have been compromised, when, or how many candidates were affected. Every number in circulation is compiled by journalists or researchers from individual incident reporting.
The most widely cited figure is more than 70 major leaks across 15 states in seven years, affecting an estimated 1.7 crore candidates. A separate compilation counted around 50 cases of public examination paper leaks since 2015.
State-level tallies from that reporting: Rajasthan, 14 cases between 2015 and 2023; Gujarat, 14 since 2015, including the 2022 forest guard recruitment; Uttar Pradesh, six between 2017 and 2022, including the Inspectors Online Recruitment Test in 2017, UPTET in 2021 and the Preliminary Eligibility Test in 2021; Uttarakhand, four since 2019. A single Telangana Public Service Commission leak in March 2023 affected more than 25,000 candidates.
Most of these are state recruitment and eligibility examinations rather than national entrance tests. That is structural: state commissions and boards run many separate exam cycles a year with smaller permanent staff and heavier reliance on contractors, and the central Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act 2024 covers central examining bodies rather than state ones.
The high-profile national cases are NEET-UG in 2024, where the leak was found confined to Patna and Hazaribagh and the Supreme Court declined to cancel the exam; UGC-NET in 2024, which was cancelled; and NEET-UG in 2026, which was cancelled outright after a pre-circulated 'guess paper' was found to match up to 120 of 180 questions.
The absence of an official register is not a small point. An institution that does not publish its own failure data cannot be measured against its own reform commitments — which is why an RTI to the Ministry of Education asking for the implementation status of the 2024 K. Radhakrishnan committee's recommendations is a genuinely useful thing for a citizen to file.
- 70+ major leaks across 15 states in seven years, affecting an estimated 1.7 crore candidates
- No official government register exists — all figures are journalistic compilations
- Rajasthan 14 cases (2015–2023), Gujarat 14 (since 2015), Uttar Pradesh 6 (2017–2022)
- Most are state recruitment exams, outside the central 2024 Act's coverage
- National cases: NEET-UG 2024 (not cancelled), UGC-NET 2024, NEET-UG 2026 (cancelled)
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Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.7 years and 70 paper leaks later, affecting 1.7 crore candidates NewsAaj Tak CampusUsed for: The 70-leak, 1.7-crore compilation across 15 states
- 2.50 cases of public exam paper leak since 2015 NewsThe TribuneUsed for: State-level counts for Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Telangana
- 3.Paper leak in India NewsWikipediaUsed for: Compiled record of leaks by state and examination
- 4.2026 NEET controversy NewsWikipediaUsed for: The 2026 NEET-UG leak and cancellation
All counts on this page are journalistic compilations, not official data — no Indian government body publishes a register of examination paper leaks, definitions of a 'major' leak vary between compilers, and the figures should be read as approximate. State-level tallies are as reported at the time of publication of the sources cited and do not include incidents since. The observation that the absence of a published failure register makes reform unmeasurable is our own point, drawn from the fact of that absence.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — Government of India ministries and departments, statutory authorities, regulators such as the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and TRAI, state governments and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgments and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Fees, slabs, limits and processing times change, often at the start of a financial year on 1 April; figures are current as of the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible department before you rely on them. A great deal of Indian administration is state administration — where a rule differs by state, this site says so.