AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday, 23 July 2026, sharply questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of fast-track courts for paper leak cases, demanding to know why Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has not been asked to resign over the recurring exam integrity failures.

Posting on X, Kejriwal wrote: 'आज सुबह प्रधान मंत्री जी ने ऐलान किया है - पेपर लीक मामलों के लिए फ़ास्ट ट्रैक कोर्ट बनाये जाएँगे।' ('This morning the Prime Minister announced that fast-track courts will be set up for paper leak cases.') He then asked pointedly: 'What happened to the demand for Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation?' Kejriwal described the Prime Minister's statement as that of 'a defeated, directionless but arrogant person.'

Context

The announcement of fast-track courts follows sustained public and political pressure over a series of high-profile examination paper leaks in India. The controversy gained national momentum after the 2024 NEET-UG and UGC-NET paper leak scandals shook confidence in the country's competitive examination infrastructure, affecting millions of aspirants. Opposition parties, including AAP, had at the time called for an independent probe and accountability at the ministerial level.

Kejriwal has been a consistent voice on education governance failures, frequently framing such incidents as evidence of systemic mismanagement by the central government. His post on 23 July 2026 follows the Prime Minister's fresh announcement, which Kejriwal treats as an admission of failure rather than a corrective measure.

Policy Backdrop

Dharmendra Pradhan has served as Union Minister of Education, holding oversight responsibility for the conduct of national-level examinations including those administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA). Opposition leaders have argued that repeated paper leaks under his watch make a ministerial-level accountability response unavoidable. The demand for his resignation has been a recurring refrain from multiple opposition benches since the 2024 scandals.

Fast-track courts are specialised judicial bodies designed to expedite trials in specific categories of cases. While the government's announcement signals intent to treat exam fraud as a serious criminal matter, critics argue that judicial speed alone does not address the upstream failure — the leaking of papers before examinations are held.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary stakeholders are the crores of students who appear for competitive examinations such as NEET, JEE, UGC-NET, and various state-level tests each year. For many aspirants from economically weaker backgrounds, these examinations represent a singular pathway to professional opportunity; a compromised exam can mean a lost year or more of preparation. Student groups and coaching institutes have long demanded structural reform in how question papers are printed, transported, and secured.

Beyond students, the debate touches on the credibility of India's public examination system as a whole — a system that determines access to medical colleges, central government jobs, and university admissions for hundreds of thousands of candidates annually.

What's Next

The political and policy focus will now shift to whether the government issues a formal notification or introduces legislation in Parliament to operationalise the fast-track courts. Separately, the question of personnel accountability — specifically, whether Dharmendra Pradhan faces any consequence — remains open and is likely to be pressed by the opposition in the weeks ahead. Any movement on either front will determine whether the government's announcement translates into substantive reform or remains a political statement.