From Sleepless Nights To Joint AIR 1: How NEET UG 2026 Toppers Celebrated Their Success, Watch

The NTA (National Testing Agency) declared the NEET UG 2026 results late night on July 16. The candidates from Punjab and Haryana emerged as the joint toppers of India's biggest medical examination.

The NTA revealed that 11.21lakh candidates successfully qualified the exam. And talking about the toppers the highest score in NEET UG 2026 was 715 out of 720 and that is jointly secured by Punjab's Aryan Gupta and Haryana's Panshul Bansal.

VIDEO | Ludhiana: Punjabs Aryan Gupta topped the NEET-UG for medical admissions.

He says, "I secured AIR 1, I scored 715 out of 720, my father and mother are doctors... I worked hard, I would not get sleep, but it is feeling surreal now, looking like a dream, everyone is happy,… pic.twitter.com/wwsNL8QNeX

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 16, 2026

VIDEO | Punjabs Aryan Gupta topped the NEET-UG for medical admissions, the National Testing Agency announced on Thursday. Visuals of celebrations from Ludhiana.#NEETResults #AryanGupta pic.twitter.com/asl4LCWJfH

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 16, 2026

He called this achievement "surreal" and "like a dream". He also added that he did his best to work hard, he studied for about 16-17 hours a day, that often had days sacrificing sleep. Gupta also shared his long-term goal of becoming an oncologist, saying he made the decision after losing his grandmother to cancer when he was in Class 3. "There is so much to do in life, but I am feeling good," he said after achieving the top rank.

Watch how the family celebrated this historic achievement:

#WATCH | Ludhiana, Punjab | Family of Aryan Gupta celebrate as he secured All India Rank (AIR) 1 with a percentile of 99.9999 in the NEET UG 2026 examination pic.twitter.com/BoIJ7OZaTg

— ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2026

Here's a gist of exam:

• 19 candidates scored more than 700 marks.
• 138 candidates secured 690 marks or above.
• 1,492 candidates scored 650 or higher.
• 10,160 candidates obtained 600 marks or more.

The top-performing candidates came from several states, reflecting strong participation from across the country.

One of the proudest moment is to know that more than 58% of the qualified candidates are women. The examination also saw strong participation from candidates across all states and Union Territories.

Exam Re-Conducted After Cancellation

This is the Re-NEET result. The initial exam was conducted on May 9 but unfortunately the exam got cancelled on May 12 following the discovery of paper leak. It must be known that the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) are investigating the matter currently.
Following the cancellation, the examination was held again on June 21.

Despite concerns that the re-examination could delay the admission process, the NTA declared the results within the planned timeline.

One of India's Largest Entrance Examinations

NEET UG is India's largest entrance exam. Informing that about 25 lakh candidates registered for the exam this year. The examination serves as the gateway for admission to undergraduate medical and allied health courses across the country.

MBBS Admissions Through NEET

NEET UG scores are used for admission to approximately 1.08 lakh MBBS seats across India.

Out of these:

• Around 56,000 seats are available in government medical colleges.
• Nearly 52,000 seats are offered by private medical colleges.
• Apart from MBBS, NEET scores are also accepted for admissions to BDS, Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and several other medical and allied health programmes.