SC directs NBE to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in single shift
text_fields
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday criticised the National Board of Examinations (NBE) for conducting the NEET-PG 2025 exam in two shifts, calling it arbitrary and unfair to candidates.
A bench led by Justice Vikram Nath stated that the practice undermines equal opportunity for all aspirants.
“The question papers in two shifts can never be of the same difficulty level. Last year, it (NEET-PG 2024) may have been held in two shifts in the facts and circumstances of that stage. But the examining body ought to have considered making arrangements for holding the examination in one shift,” remarked the Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and N.K. Anjaria.
The apex court was dealing with a clutch of petitions challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the NEET-PG examination.
The Supreme Court was hearing petitions challenging the lack of transparency in the NEET-PG examination process.
Aspirants argued that the introduction of two shifts, the normalisation method, and changes to the tie-breaker criteria negatively impacted medical students.
Petitioners claimed that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be altered arbitrarily, with no established rules governing the exam's conduct.
They also contested the NBE's decision to withhold question papers, answer keys, and response sheets from candidates.
The plea said that NEET-PG had never been held in two shifts before and had always remained a single-shift and single-day examination to ensure a uniform examination standard and fairness of the national test.
One of the petitions, filed through advocate Parul Shukla, highlighted that, unlike previous years where the candidate used to receive their total score along with the number of correctly attempted questions and the number of incorrectly attempted questions, the NEET-PG 2024 results did not provide their total score.
The Supreme Court recently issued notices to the Centre, NBE, and NMC regarding a plea by the United Doctors Front (UDF) challenging the two-shift format of the NEET-PG 2025 exam.
The petition urged the court to mandate a single, uniform session for the exam and sought an interim stay on the June 15 schedule.
(inputs from IANS)
