The history paper of the National Eligibility Test (NET) was circulated widely on social media within hours of the exam on Monday, triggering allegations of a leak as copies of the question paper are not handed over to students.

The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the NET on behalf of the University Grants Commission (UGC), said in a public notice: “It is informed that the format circulating in social media is well after the conduct of the examination on 10.10.2022 and also it is not the same that was delivered to the candidates.”

The NET is conducted to select candidates for the post of assistant professor in universities and colleges. The top scorers are awarded the Junior Research Fellowship to enable them to pursue research.

Several candidates who took the history exam on Monday afternoon said they got copies of the question paper as WhatsApp forwards on Tuesday morning. No formal complaint has been lodged yet.

“The Hindi version of the history paper has been leaked. From top to bottom, everything is the same,” a student said.

The candidates are not allowed to take the question papers home. The NET is held in the computer-based test mode. The candidates get the question paper on their screen and are required to type the answers. The NTA releases a copy of the question papers after the results are declared.

“The NTA releases the question papers when the results are announced to help future candidates understand the pattern of the questions. But within 24 hours we have got copies of the paper. We do not know when it was leaked and who leaked it. It must be investigated,” the student said.

Members of the student outfits SFI and Aisa on Wednesday protested in front of the UGC office in New Delhi against the alleged paper leak and incompetence of the NTA. They alleged that the NET for the Hindi language paper was leaked last year at some centres in Haryana.

The protesters met UGC officials and demanded that the history exam be held again and action be taken against those responsible for the “leak”.

Aditi Tyagi, a student of Hindu College, said mismanagement of exams had become common and alleged that this was part of “vendetta to destroy public-funded education”.

Aishe Ghosh, vice-president of SFI Delhi, said the NTA was incapable of conducting exams. The NTA-conducted Cuet for admission to undergraduate courses in central universities earlier this year had been blighted by glitches and delays.

NTA director-general Vineet Joshi denied a leak. “It is not a leak. Nothing was brought in the public domain during or before the exam,” he said.

Joshi said the NTA was committed to holding the test in a credible manner. When asked about last year’s leak, he denied any such incident.

“No formal communication or information was brought to our notice about any leak last year,” he said.