UGC NET December Session 2025: Delhi HC orders NTA to form expert panel on final answer key errors

Both options 2 and 3 are identical, and NTA has marked option 2 as correct. As per the Delhi High Court, the court has asked the agency to award two marks.

On the second hearing date (February 19), Kahol’s advocate contended that one of the issues raised by him in his plea did not require the need to form a committee because the options were visibly similar.

“If the options were similar, then the committee’s opinion was unnecessary. Kartikeya was just short by only two marks, and if even one of his questions was correct, he would have qualified for JRF. On that basis, the judge paved the way to award him two marks and disposed of his petition,” said Arora. On the same day, the court directed NTA to consider the intervention applications of other students within four weeks.

The court order reads, “The applications shall be treated as representations by the respondent No.1, and the respondent No.1 (NTA) shall constitute an expert committee to evaluate these objections. The expert committee shall look into the applications, hear the applicants, and thereafter pass an order expeditiously, not later than 4 weeks from today (February 19).”

Amid growing discontent, the NTA mailed students on February 21 that it had formed a subject expert committee to re-examine concerns related to the History paper.

As the high court’s directive forces the NTA to constitute a committee, thousands now await clarity on whether more corrections and potential score changes will follow.

What is the UGC NET History matter?

As many as 60,777 candidates appeared for their UGC NET History paper in December, the results of which were declared on February 4. Several aspirants complained that the NTA incorrectly marked as many as nine questions, and despite detailed objections, the final answer key released on February 4 remained unchanged. Many have since taken to social media, alleging that critical errors were overlooked by both the Agency and its panel of subject experts.

Mihir Bayen from West Bengal, who narrowly missed qualifying, said the errors directly affected his score. “After months of sacrifice and hard work, it hurts that I was just short of one question to qualify as an assistant professor,” he said. Bayen claimed he identified nine mistakes in the provisional answer key released on January 14 and expected at least some of them to be dropped. Instead, he said, all challenges were rejected. One of the disputed questions featured two identical options, but only one was accepted as correct. “I chose the identical option, yet the NTA refused to fix this oversight,” he said.

Other candidates echoed these concerns. Abhishek Yadav, who appeared for the UGC NET 2025, said several questions in the exam contained factual or structural errors. During the objection window, several students submitted references from authors like Satish Chandra and Upinder Singh to challenge the questions.

Students claim that the answer to this question is Bhutkis rather than Mandalas, which is marked correct by NTA.

Another candidate, Parismita Borah, said she missed the JRF cutoff by two questions despite answering disputed questions correctly. Akash Mishra, who qualified only for a PhD, criticised the non-refundable Rs 200 fee per objection and said there was “zero transparency” about how the subject experts reviewed challenges.

Coaching faculty have also weighed in. Ashwani Tyagi, a UGC NET History instructor at Testbook Supercoaching, claimed there were nine incorrect answers and two translation errors.

However, JRF holders such as Silpa Silu, Kushagra Manas, and Abin Jolly disputed this, asserting that only three questions – including the one flagged by the court – were questionable and accused some faculty of amplifying the controversy for online traction. They said the uproar has delayed the release of final certificates for lakhs.

Candidates from other subjects have also reported discrepancies. Political Science aspirant Rishabh Choudhary said three to four questions in his paper were factually incorrect, while Anjali and others appearing for the Education paper claimed they missed qualifying “by just one question” after the NTA refused to drop challenged questions. Some faculties argued that errors have increased since NTA took sole responsibility for NET, with greater reliance on memorization-based questions.