Facing massive criticism over the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam, the Ministry of Education today explained that they had to scrap the test following concerns that its integrity may have been compromised. The Education Ministry also assured that it won’t hesitate to take action against anyone.

Over 11 lakh students had registered for the exam, which was held on Tuesday and got cancelled a day later. UGC-NET determines a candidate’s eligibility for the post of assistant professor in universities and colleges, as well as for research fellowships.

It was cancelled on the basis of inputs received from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, Govind Jaiswal, joint secretary in the Education Ministry, told the media.

“The matter has been handed over to the CBI for a thorough investigation. A fresh examination shall be conducted, for which information will be shared soon,” he said.

The ministry, he said, will take necessary action against those involved in wrongdoing. “At this level, when the investigation is underway, we can’t disclose more details. NTA has its own mechanism and a lot of other stakeholders are involved. This all is under investigation,” he said.

Responding to concerns why the exam was conducted in OMR (pen and paper) mode this time, the ministry official said, “Based on NTA’s experience of four years, inputs were received from different stakeholders and this decision was taken.”

The exam was conducted by the National Testing Agency, which is already under fire for alleged irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) for undergraduate admission to medical colleges. Over 24 lakh aspirants sat for the exam. Reports of paper leak have triggered nationwide protests and demands for a re-test.

The government has repeatedly denied malpractice and irregularities in NEET-UG, and also ruled out scrapping the entire examination over “problems at a handful of centres”.

Thousands of students from across the country have hit the streets amid damning reports of NEET-UG question paper leaks, inflated ranks and grace marks prompting the opposition parties to demand a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the allegations.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and National Testing Agency (NTA) to accept any mistake, if any, in conducting the NEET-UG this year and cautioned that even 0.01% negligence should be thoroughly dealt with.

The Opposition parties have targeted the Centre over the issue. The Congress described the Narendra Modi-led NDA government as “paper leak government”. The party has asked its state units to stage protests at their headquarters on Friday to demand justice for students.

Other members of the INDIA bloc, including Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) have also accused the government of jeopardising the future of lakhs of students.