Govt sacks exam body chief Subodh Kumar amid paper leak, Opposition allegations

Amid the paper-leak controversy, the Centre has sacked the National Testing Agency's (NTA) chief Subodh Kumar.

In a notification on Saturday evening, the Centre announced Kumar's dismissal and said IAS officer Pradeep Singh Kharola will be NTA's interim chief.

In recent weeks, the NTA has come under the scanner over allegations of paper-leaks and other irregularities in the conduct of the public examinations like the NEET, UGC-NET, and CSIR-UGC-NET. The Centre has formed a panel to look into the functioning of the NTA and top members of the body.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Education (MoE) set up a seven-member committee to reform the holding of exams by the NTA. The committee will be led by K Radhakrishnan, former chief of the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO). The committee will provide recommendations on reforms in the exam process, improvements in data security protocols, and the structure and functioning of the NTA, according to The Times of India.

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Separately, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said earlier in the day that the "top leadership" of NTA was under investigation. He also said the recent developments were borne out of an "institutional failure".

"I have already said there has been an institutional failure. I have taken responsibility. NTA's top leadership is under several types of questions. But I have to safeguard students' interests first. I am a custodian of their interests," said Pradhan, as per PTI.

The sacking of Kumar has come a day after the NTA postponed the CSIR-UGC-NET exam. Previously, the MoE on Wednesday announced the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam on the basis of inputs from Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) that indicated that the "integrity of the examination may have been compromised". The MoE further said the matter had been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a probe.