How Will NEET Re-Exam 2026 Affect MBBS Admissions and Counselling?

NTA cancelled the NEET exam 2026, which was conducted on May 3. The exam conducting body will soon release the NEET Re Exam Dates on its official website. The whole NEET paper leak scenario will have a profound effect on the NEET 2026 Counselling and Admission process. Read this page for more details.

NEET 2026 Counselling

The National Testing Agency will soon release the NEET 2026 Re-Exam date on its official portal. The NTA is expected to conduct the NEET Re Exam in June/July. The candidates are suggested to continue their momentum of NEET Preparation to score better in the exam. 

Every year, the NEET exam is conducted in May and the Counselling starts in July. But this year, since the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper leak cases resulted in the cancellation of the paper, the NEET Re-Exam will delay the whole process of Counselling and Admission. 

What After NEET Re Exam Result

The candidates should note that the NTA conduct the written exam of NEET but the Counselling process is taken care by the Medical Counselling Committee. It is a central body, independent of NTA. It works under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. 

NTA prepares the NEET result in the form of All India Merit List and place the candidates in ranks. The NTA also notifies the Tie-resolution mechanism for the cases where two or more candidates have equal marks. The final merit list of the candidates will be forwarded to the Medical Counselling Committee with other details such as the application data, course preferences, domicile and category status of the candidate and any other essential information. Consequently, the MCC prepares the Round-Wise Counselling list based on the choices given by the candidates, their category, domicile status and the number of seat available in the medical institutions.

Also Read: How to Prepare for NEET Re-Exam

NEET MCC Counselling Process

MCC conduct the NEET Counselling for the following Seats:

• 15% All India Quota seats MBBS/ BDS Seats of States (participation of the Union Territory of J&K is subject to their contribution of seats),

• 100%MBBS/ BDS Seats of BHU,

• 100% MBBS Seats of AIIMS across India,

• 100% JIPMER seats (Puducherry/ Karaikal),

• 100% AMU

• 85% of State Quota seats of DU/ I.P University (VMMC/ ABVIMS/ESIC Dental),

• 100% -Faculty of Dentistry (Jamia Milia Islamia), along with 5% internal Quota of Jamia students

• 15% IP quota seats of ESIC.

Also Read: NEET Marks Vs Ranks

MCC prepares the list of candidates for each medical institute for the first round based on the AIQ rank, domicile, preferred choice and the category-wise seat availability. The selected candidates are required to apply for the Centralised Counselling Registration Form and pay the security fee.

• In the Counselling Registration Form, the candidates will be required to give the College preference list.
• The MCC will match the college preference given by the candidate with the NEET AIQ Rank. 
• The Counselling software will look at the candidate’s 1st preference and if the seat is available at the rank, the candidate gets the seat.
• Otherwise, the same algorithm will run for the second preferred medical college. 
• The MCC will issue an allotment letter to the candidate where the college preference and AIQ rank availability of the seat match. The candidate will now fill the application form of that college, which is mentioned in the allotment letter.
• The candidates can hold their current seat and opt for upgradation. Upgradation implies searching of better college in the next round of counselling, keeping the earlier allotted seat intact. But for this process, the candidates will be required to pay the tuition fee of the earlier allotted seat.
• The other way to proceed directly to the second round incase the allotted seat does not suits a candidate, they need not to report to the allotted college. No Penalty will be there and it is called as Free Exit (of the Round 1).

Impact of NEET Re-Exam on Counselling and Admission

The NTA is expected to conduct the NEET Re Exam either in June or July, in both the cases, the NEET Counselling will be delayed to August or September, respectively. This will have a profound impact on the academic session of MBBS and other courses because the first year students will be promoted to the second year, as the internal exams will be conducted on time, but there will be no first-year students in the Medical Colleges till September/October.

The candidates taking admission this year can have the truncated first semester/year which can impact their studies.

Also Read: NEET Re Exam - What can Change