Supreme Court: In a batch of civil writ petitions, the partial working days three-Judge Bench of Vikram Nath, Sanjay Kumar, and NV Anjaria, JJ. directed the National Board of Examination (NBE) to hold National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Post Graduate) (NEET-PG 2025) in one shift.
The petitioners had two-fold issues. One, that the holding of the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two shifts would give rise to arbitrariness as it does not extend a level playing field to all the candidates, since two question papers can never be of the same standard and level of difficulty. It was contended that the NEET-PG examination was held in two shifts, and the process of normalization was adopted in that scenario, but the authorities concerned had ample time to plan to hold the NEET-PG examination in one shift at least this year.
The second issue pertained to the disclosure of the answer sheets, question papers, etc., of the examination.
Presently, the Court dealt with the question of holding the examination in two shifts or in a single shift. The Court noted that the NBE took two grounds in support of holding the examination in two shifts. First, that the number of candidates who would appear in the said examination are too large, making it difficult for the examining body to identify sufficient number of secure centres to hold the examination in one shift, and the second is that, if the examination is held in one shift, unscrupulous elements may get involved and there could be malpractices.
NBE’s contention that that even if the examining body makes an effort to identify more secure centres, it would take time which may result in delaying the holding of the examination as per schedule, was rejected by the Court saying that there was still enough time for the examining body to identify sufficient number of secure centres so as to hold the examination in one shift.The Court directed the NBE to make arrangements to conduct examination in one shift to ensure transparency and uniformity in the evaluation process. The Court noted that the total number of candidates who have applied this year for the NEET-PG examination is 2,42,678 and said that it was not ready to accept that in the entire country, considering the technological advancements achieved, the examining body cannot find sufficient number of centres to hold the examination in one shift. The Court also added that a hefty examination fee of Rs. 3,500/- from each general category candidate and 2,500 from each SC/ST/PWD category candidate was collected and is, therefore, possessed of more than enough funds to commission sufficient number of centres to smoothly hold the examination in one shift.
“Holding the examination in two shifts would invariably enable arbitrariness and would not entail at-par evaluation of the comparative merit of the candidates who take the examinations. No two question papers can ever be said to be at an identical level of difficulty or ease. There is bound to be variation. Normalisation may be applied and adopted in exceptional circumstances but not in a routine manner year after year, especially when the number of candidates is not unduly large, as is the case presently.”
Considering that the exam is scheduled to be held on 15-06-2025, the Court said that there was two weeks’ time for NBE to identify more centres to hold the examination in one shift.
The second issue raised in these petitions can be considered after the examination is held. The matter was further listed for hearing on 14-07-2025.
[Aditi v. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences, Diary no. – 22918/2025]
Source: Press
