Plea in SC against two shifts for NEET-PG 2025, court seeks Centre's response

New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and others on a petition challenging a notification on holding the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two shifts.

The plea sought a direction for the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to conduct the examination, scheduled on June 15, in a single shift to ensure a uniform, transparent and fair testing environment for all candidates.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan agreed to hear the plea filed by seven medical practitioners who have also sought a direction to increase the number of test centres across the country for conducting National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Post Graduate (NEET-PG) 2025 in a single shift.

"Issue notice, returnable one week," the bench said.

The notices were issued to the NBEMS, the National Medical Council and the Centre, seeking their responses to the plea.

The NBEMS is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting postgraduate and postdoctoral examinations in approved specialities leading to the award of Diplomate of National Board (DNB) and Doctorate of National Board (DrNB) and Fellow of National Board (FNB).

The petitioners have challenged an April 16 notification issued by the NBEMS which notified that NEET-PG 2025 examination would be conducted on June 15 in two-shifts.

Advocates Sukriti Bhatnagar and Abhisht Hela appeared for the petitioners.

"Holding the examination in two shifts has the potential for unfairness due to varying difficulty levels between shifts, the challenges of a transparent and accurate normalisation process and the increased stress and anxiety for candidates," the plea said.

It said the petitioners were seeking directions to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift to "maintain just, fair, reasonable and equitable grounds of competition for all the candidates as a difference of even 0.1 marks in NEET-PG examination can alter the rank of a candidate by hundreds and thousands".

The plea said NEET-PG 2025 covers a wide range of medical specialisations.

It said holding such an extensive examination in two shifts directly violated the rights of the candidates under Article 14 of the Constitution as maintaining just, fair, reasonable and equitable grounds of competition was almost impossible because of a lack of transparency in the moderation and normalization process.

"It also violates Article 21 of the candidates, as the process violates the basic right to fair examination," the plea claimed.

It said NEET-PG 2024 was also conducted in a two-shift format and the results were challenged before the top court due to problems arising out of the format and the subsequent normalization system.

"There is a likelihood that one batch of candidates may face a more difficult question paper than the other batch as happened in the case of NEET-PG 2024, where it was alleged that the question paper in the second shift was easier," the plea said.

The Supreme Court

It said holding the examination in two shifts introduces variability in difficulty levels and subject-wise question distribution.

The plea said it also creates bigger problems such as moderation, scaling and rationalisation of questions and normalization of marks for candidates of both shifts as the same would benefit aspirants of either of the two shifts.

"This results in violation of the right to equality and makes the whole process vitiated and non-transparent, leaving an itch in the hearts and minds of meritorious candidates," it said.

The plea has sought directions to issue a fresh notification notifying the conduct of NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift.

It has also sought a direction to the NBEMS to publish question papers and answer keys on its website in a public forum after the declaration of results in order to maintain fairness and transparency in the examination process.