Thousands of postgraduate medical aspirants scheduled to appear for the May 2026 Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) have raised concerns over delayed admit card access and far-off exam centre allotments, just days before the examination on May 16, 2026.
The exam, conducted by AIIMS Delhi, released admit cards at around 3 pm on May 9, 2026. However, many candidates alleged that the portal slowed down or crashed soon after, leaving several aspirants unable to download their hall tickets for nearly nine to ten hours.
Several students said they could access the admit card portal only after midnight, triggering complaints across social media platforms.
One aspirant, Dr. Aman Kumar, posted on X, “You charge ₹4,000 for the application form and the website still crashed for hours.”
The delay came at a critical time for candidates preparing for one of India’s key postgraduate medical entrance examinations. With the exam scheduled only a week after the admit card release, aspirants said the uncertainty added stress during the final phase of preparation.
According to AIIMS officials quoted in the TOI report, the slowdown occurred because of heavy traffic from simultaneous logins.
“If one lakh people access any website at the same time, it can slow down or crash. This happens with many exams, including NEET. The site is now working fine and candidates have been able to download admit cards,” officials said.
The explanation, however, did little to ease concerns among candidates who said they had already been dealing with pressure over travel arrangements, exam preparation and uncertainty around centre allocation.
Apart from the admit card issue, many candidates also flagged the allotment of exam centres located hundreds of kilometres away from their homes.
Aspirants from large states such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan said they were allotted centres nearly 500 to 800 km away, making travel difficult and expensive.
One candidate from Agra said she was allotted Varanasi, nearly 650 km away. Another aspirant from Mumbai claimed she was assigned Nanded as her examination centre.
Students said that travelling within large states such as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan can itself take 12 to 24 hours, especially when train and flight tickets are difficult to secure at short notice.
The short gap between the admit card release on May 9 and the examination on May 16 has also left candidates with limited time to make confirmed travel and accommodation arrangements.
“There are hundreds of such cases,” one candidate said, urging AIIMS to review the centre allocation process.
Dr Naval K. Vikram, Associate Dean, Examinations, AIIMS Delhi, said around 95,000 candidates had received either their first or second preferred state.
He added that more than one lakh candidates are appearing for the INI-CET this year.
According to Dr Vikram, nearly 96,000 admit cards had already been downloaded by Sunday.
His statement suggests that most candidates were able to access their admit cards after the initial technical disruption, but concerns remain among those who received distant centres or faced delays during the download window.
The Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test, commonly known as INI-CET, is conducted twice a year, in May and November.
The examination is held for admission to postgraduate medical courses at AIIMS and other Institutes of National Importance across India.
For medical graduates, INI-CET is one of the most competitive entrance tests for postgraduate training. Any disruption in admit card access or centre allotment can directly affect candidates’ travel planning, mental preparedness and exam-day logistics.
The complaints around the May 2026 INI-CET have once again raised questions about the preparedness of examination portals during high-traffic periods and the need for more candidate-friendly centre allotment systems.
For aspirants, the issue is not only technical. Many said that distant centres increase travel costs, disrupt revision schedules and create avoidable anxiety before a high-stakes medical entrance examination.
With the exam scheduled for May 16, 2026, candidates are now hoping for smoother communication from AIIMS and better planning in future examination cycles.
(Rh/ARC)
