The Union health ministry on Saturday announced the cancellation of the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test for admissions to post-graduate medical courses in the country, also known as the NEET-PG exam, in light of the recent allegations regarding the integrity of other competitive examinations.

The NEET-PG exam, which was scheduled for Sunday, was cancelled “in the best interests of the students and to maintain the sanctity of the examination process,” the health ministry said in a statement. It clarified that the rescheduled dates for the test would be announced after “a thorough assessment of the robustness of processes of NEET-PG Entrance Examination”.

Nearly two lakh graduate medical students write the exam annually to secure around 52,000 post-graduation seats across the country, reported The Indian Express.

The exam’s cancellation came on the day that the Union government sacked the National Testing Agency’s Director General Subodh Kumar Singh. Retired 1985 batch Indian Administrative Services officer Pradeep Singh Kharola will take over as the agency’s chief until further orders, the newspaper reported.

To be sure, however, the NEET-PG exam is not conducted by the National Testing Agency but the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences.

On Saturday, the Union education ministry also announced that it was entrusting the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into allegations of paper leaks and other malpratices with regard to the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses, also known as the NEET-UG exam.

The National Testing Agency has been in the middle of a row concerning alleged irregularities and paper leaks in two of India’s largest competitive entrance examinations, namely the NEET-UG exam and the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test for the post of assistant professor in universities and colleges.

The autonomous testing agency on Friday deferred the Joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test. The examination is conducted for admission to junior research fellowship, lectureship and assistant professor posts in universities.

The agency said in a notice that the test that was scheduled to be held between June 25 and June 27 was deferred “due to unavoidable circumstances as well as logistic issues”.

This came two days after the Union government cancelled the University Grants Commission-National Eligibility Test after its question paper was leaked. The exam was conducted on June 18.

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday took moral responsibility for any loss of confidence among students in the competitive examination processes after several irregularities were pointed out in the NEET-UG exam, which was conducted on May 5.

The results of the entrance examination were announced on June 4. Subsequently, several aspirants alleged that an inflation of marks had led to 67 candidates securing the top rank, including six from the same examination centre.

The Supreme Court is currently hearing a clutch of petitions seeking that the NEET-UG examination results be cancelled and that the test be rescheduled.

Also read: NEET fiasco puts the spotlight on the National Testing Agency and its error-ridden record