New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a petition challenging the National Board of Examinations (NBE)’s decision to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 exam in two shifts during the last week of May.
Since the NEET PG 2025 is scheduled for June 15, the petitioners requested an urgent hearing. The matter was raised before a bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih. The petitioners’ lawyer urged the court to take up the case early, stating, “We are challenging the two-shift exam. The process starts in June, kindly list it on Monday.”
Join NEET PG News 2025 Responding to this, the CJI said, “We will take it up next week,” according to a report by Live Law.
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The NBE has scheduled the NEET PG 2025 results for July 15.
Two Pleas Filed Against Two-Shift Format
Currently, two petitions are pending before the Supreme Court. One was filed by the United Doctors’ Front (UDF), and the other by a group of individual petitioners, including Dr. Aditi.
The UDF has asked the court to direct NBE to hold the exam in a single shift, citing concerns over transparency, equal difficulty levels, and fair evaluation. The petitioners argue that conducting the exam in two shifts violates the candidates’ fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, the right to equality and the right to a fair opportunity based on merit.
Concerns Over Normalisation Formula
Both petitions have questioned the normalisation formula used by NBE to adjust scores across different shifts. This formula aims to balance out differences in difficulty between papers, but many doctors argue that it is unreliable and lacks transparency.
In NEET PG 2024, several candidates who appeared in the second shift claimed that their paper was harder than the first shift. They alleged that the score adjustment process was unfair, and even accused the board of scamming students under the guise of a competitive exam.
These concerns were brought before the Supreme Court, where petitioners demanded complete transparency in the scoring and evaluation process.
NBE Defends Its Decision
Despite the widespread concerns, the NBE has not changed its plan to hold the NEET PG 2025 in two shifts. The board’s legal counsel defended this approach in court, stating that NEET PG is a high-level speciality exam with nearly 2.4 lakh candidates each year. They argued that the number of suitable questions is limited, making it necessary to conduct the exam in multiple shifts.
Supreme Court Seeks Reforms
Earlier, on May 5, the Supreme Court had asked the NBE, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to respond to the petitions.
In light of the issues raised, the court issued a 10-point directive to reform the PG medical entrance process. The court also instructed NBE to publish the following for greater transparency:
- Raw scores
- Answer keys
- Normalisation formula
Additionally, the Supreme Court directed the authorities to take steps to stop seat blocking during NEET PG counselling.
