The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) on a petition challenging the decision to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two shifts.
A Bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan issued notices on the plea filed by seven medical practitioners, who have also urged the apex court to direct the NBEMS to conduct the postgraduate medical entrance examination scheduled on June 15 in a single shift to ensure uniformity, fairness, and transparency.
“Issue notice, returnable in one week,” the Bench said while admitting the matter for hearing.
The petitioners have contested the NBEMS’s April 16 notification which scheduled the NEET-PG 2025 examination in two shifts, alleging that the dual-shift system compromises the integrity of the exam by introducing discrepancies in difficulty levels and creating an inequitable testing environment.
Appearing for the petitioners, Advocates Sukriti Bhatnagar and Abhisht Hela argued that holding such a critical examination in two shifts increases stress for candidates and creates unfair competition. The petition warns that even a 0.1 mark difference—arising from unbalanced question papers or normalization flaws—can drastically alter a candidate’s rank by hundreds or thousands.
The plea emphasized that NEET-PG covers a wide range of medical specializations and maintaining equity across shifts is “virtually impossible” due to inconsistencies in moderation and normalization processes. “This violates Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 21 (Right to Fair Procedure) of the Constitution,” the petition claimed.
It also pointed out that the NEET-PG 2024 exam faced similar criticisms, with allegations that candidates in the second shift received easier question papers—raising concerns over transparency and fairness. The petition noted that problems related to scaling, rationalisation, and subject-wise variability continue to plague the two-shift format.
The petitioners further demanded that NBEMS issue a fresh notification to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift, and also sought a direction for the publication of question papers and answer keys after the result declaration to uphold transparency in the examination process.
The NBEMS, which conducts postgraduate and postdoctoral medical examinations including DNB, DrNB, and FNB certifications, will now be required to respond along with the Centre and NMC before the next hearing.
