UPTET 2026: Allahabad High Court Orders Two Questions Dropped, Benefit for All Similarly Placed Candidates; What It Means If You Missed by a Mark

The Allahabad High Court has directed that two disputed questions be dropped from the evaluation of the Uttar Pradesh Teacher Eligibility Test (UPTET) 2026 and that the benefit be given to all similarly placed candidates, not only the four who went to court. If the UP Education Service Selection Commission (UPESSC) recomputes scores on that basis, some candidates who missed the qualifying mark by a small margin could now qualify.

Justice Vinod Diwakar passed the order on 28 October 2026 in Vijay Sonkar & 3 Others v. State of U.P. & 2 Others (Writ-A No. 16959 of 2026). As of 3 November, UPESSC had not posted any notice or revised result on its website about the order.

The two disputed questions

The dispute is over Questions 36 and 37 of the Master Set. In the provisional answer key, option D was the only correct answer to both. After objections, the final key accepted two answers for each: options B and D for Question 36, and options A and D for Question 37. Candidates who had marked either accepted option got the marks; those who had marked any other option got nothing for those questions.

The four petitioners took the primary-level paper on 3 July 2026 in the second shift. When the result came out on 26 August, they were declared not qualified with normalised scores between 80.40 and 81.40, against a qualifying mark of 82 for them.

What the court ordered

• Questions 36 and 37 are to be excluded from evaluation. The paper will be treated as having 148 questions instead of 150, and the qualifying standard will be worked out at the prescribed percentages on that basis.
• The benefit must be extended uniformly to all similarly situated candidates, and not restricted to those who picked one of the two accepted options.
• The petitioners’ scores are to be recomputed and their results and scorecards corrected.

The court said that excluding the questions “treats every candidate alike” because it neither rewards nor penalises the choice made on a defective question. It relied on Supreme Court rulings that the fault in such cases lies with the examining body, not the candidates.

What it means for UPTET 2026 candidates

• Borderline candidates should watch for a revised result. Those who were declared not qualified by a mark or two have the most to gain if UPESSC recomputes scores for everyone.
• The order is about TET eligibility only. The court made clear that the relief does not, by itself, give any right to appointment or selection in a later recruitment.
• No deadline has been set. The order does not give UPESSC a date to publish revised scores, and UPESSC could also appeal. Keep your scorecard and roll number, and follow notices on upessc.up.gov.in.

Key details

For the UPTET syllabus, past papers and results, see the UPTET page on AglaSem Career.

Source: Judgment of the Allahabad High Court dated 28 October 2026 in Writ-A No. 16959 of 2026 (Vijay Sonkar & 3 Ors. v. State of U.P. & 2 Ors.).