Campus Times | Lucknow 

The National Testing Agency (NTA) has responded to concerns over the ₹200-per-question fee being charged to candidates who wish to challenge the provisional answer key for UGC NET June 2026. The agency maintained that the fee is part of a mechanism designed to prevent indiscriminate objections and ensure that only substantive challenges are raised.

The clarification came after candidates questioned the cost of challenging answers. The objection window opened on August 16, shortly after NTA released the provisional answer key for the June 2026 examination.

In a post on X, NTA said the answer key challenge process is intended to ensure fairness for all candidates, rather than serving only the candidate who raises an objection. The agency pointed out that when a challenge is accepted by the subject experts, the corrected answer key is applicable to every candidate who appeared for the concerned examination.

NTA explains why candidates are charged ₹200

According to NTA, the ₹200 fee per question is primarily intended to discourage frivolous or unsupported challenges. The agency also clarified that the amount is refunded in full when a candidates challenge is accepted after expert review.

The testing agency stressed that even a single valid objection can result in a correction benefiting a large number of candidates. This, it said, is the rationale behind retaining a fee-based challenge mechanism.

The UGC NET June 2026 examination was conducted in computer-based mode from June 22 to June 30 across 87 subjects. The examination is held for determining eligibility for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), Assistant Professor positions and admission to PhD programmes in Indian universities and other eligible institutions.

Answer key released for 84 subjects

NTA has so far issued the provisional answer key for 84 subjects. However, candidates who appeared for English, Commerce and Sociology were not included in the answer key release following the cancellation of their examinations.

The agency cancelled these three papers after receiving multiple complaints regarding errors in the question papers. A committee constituted to examine the complaints reportedly identified several issues, including factual and typographical mistakes, translation problems, errors in question wording, grammatical inconsistencies, punctuation errors and problems involving established terminology. The committee also flagged repetition of a significant number of questions that had appeared in earlier examinations.

Re-examination scheduled for September 9 and 10

Following the cancellation, NTA has scheduled the UGC NET re-examination for English, Commerce and Sociology on September 9 and 10, 2026.

Meanwhile, the revised final answer key for the other UGC NET June 2026 subjects is awaited. The final key will be prepared after the challenge process is examined and the objections are reviewed by subject experts.

The NTA clarification comes amid wider scrutiny of the answer key objection process, with candidates seeking greater clarity on both the fee structure and the treatment of disputed questions. For now, the agency has reiterated that the challenge fee is intended as a safeguard against frivolous objections and is refundable when a challenge is found valid.