SC issues notice on petition challenging lack of transparency in NEET-PG exam

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) on a petition, challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance (NEET)-PG 2024 examination. 

The NEET-PG exam was conducted by the NBE on August 11 and the results were announced on August 23.

A bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud sought the response of the NBE and the Union government and posted the matter for hearing on September 27.

Senior advocate Vibha Makhija, assisted by advocate Parul Shukla, representing the petitioner, NEET-PG aspirants, said that the introduction of two shifts, normalisation method, and change in tie-breaker criterion just three days before the examination affected the students adversely.

Makhija added that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be amended at the whims and fancies of the authorities and no rules or regulations existed governing the conduct of examination.

"We will issue a notice. File your affidavit within a week because counselling is going to start. Come back next Friday," said the Bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

In the previous hearing, the top court agreed to examine the issues raised in the petition and asked the petitioner side to serve a copy of the plea on the NBE, apart from the standing counsel.

The petition filed before the Supreme Court challenged the NBE's practice of not disclosing question papers, answer keys, or response sheets of candidates for the exam this year.

The plea said that there was a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of the examination since none of the documents allowed students to check their performance, adding that neither the question paper, nor the response sheet filled in by candidates, nor an answer key was supplied to the students, and merely a score card has been provided.

The petition, filed through advocate 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 results released on August 23 did not provide the total score of the candidate.

"The method/manner in which examination under the NEET PG 2024 is conducted by the Respondents (authorities) is manifestly arbitrary and against the principles of transparency and fairness in state action as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India," it added.

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 exam. It highlighted a "serious patent defect in the conduct of the examination", requiring redressal in order to achieve a clean, transparent and effective system of examination which gives the best candidates.

"The NEET-PG being a multidisciplinary exam where one’s rank also determines their ability to opt for the course and field of their choice, any slight variation in marks would bar several candidates from specialising in their field of interest," it added.