The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea challenging the decision of the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two separate shifts.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih took note of the submissions made by the petitioners’ counsel and assured that the matter will be listed for hearing within the next few days.
The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses (NEET-PG) is scheduled to be conducted on June 15, 2025, in two shifts via computer-based testing. The results are expected by July 15.
Highlighting the urgency of the matter, the counsel for the petitioners pointed out that admit cards are to be issued on June 2, and despite the bench’s earlier assurance on May 23 that the plea would be listed last week, it had not been heard. Responding to the request, CJI Gavai said, “It will be listed in a day or two.”
The plea, filed by Aditi and others, challenges the NBE’s decision on the grounds that conducting the exam in two different shifts could result in an uneven playing field, as the difficulty levels may vary between shifts. The petition argues that this could compromise the fairness and transparency of the competitive examination.
The petitioners have urged the court to direct the NBE to hold the examination in a single shift to ensure a just, fair, and equitable evaluation process for all candidates.
The top court had earlier, on May 5, sought responses from the NBE, the National Medical Commission, and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare regarding the plea.
This development also comes close on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on NEET-PG counselling, in which it issued a series of directions to curb seat-blocking practices. The court had mandated the publication of raw scores, answer keys, and normalization formulae to bring greater transparency to the process.
