SC Orders NBE To Conduct NEET-PG 2025 Exam In Single Shift To Ensure Fairness

Last Updated:May 30, 2025, 13:35 IST

NEET PG 2025 Supreme Court Hearing: The Supreme Court has directed NBE to hold NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift, citing fairness and the need for equal difficulty levels.

NEET PG 2025 Supreme Court Hearing: In a significant order aimed at ensuring fairness and transparency, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 examination in a single shift. The exam is scheduled to be held on 15 June. The apex court stated that conducting the postgraduate medical entrance test in two shifts could lead to arbitrariness and adversely impact the level playing field for aspirants.

A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice N.K. Anjaria passed the order while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the NBE’s decision to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in two shifts.

“Conducting the exam in two shifts results in arbitrariness and fails to ensure a level playing field. The question papers across the two shifts can never be of the same difficulty level. While last year it may have been held in two shifts due to specific circumstances prevailing at the time, the examining body should have made efforts to conduct the examination in a single shift this year,” the Court observed in its order.

Rejecting the NBE’s argument that there were not enough centres to hold the exam in a single shift, the Court remarked: “We are not ready to accept that, in a country of this scale and with the technological advancements available, the examining body could not find sufficient centres to hold the examination in one shift.”

Observing that more than two weeks remain before the examination date, the Supreme Court said the NBE has adequate time to identify secure and credible exam centres to facilitate a single-shift exam. The Court also directed the examining body to maintain full transparency and ensure proper arrangements are made for the smooth conduct of the examination.

This directive comes amid mounting concerns among medical aspirants regarding the fairness of conducting high-stakes exams like NEET-PG in multiple shifts, where the level of difficulty may vary between question papers.

Last year, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) declared the NEET-PG results on 23 August. Soon after, many candidates raised concerns about discrepancies in their results, alleging that improper normalisation had led to unexpectedly low ranks. Several aspirants cross-verified their responses with unofficial answer keys released by coaching institutes and pointed out inconsistencies, further fuelling dissatisfaction with the multi-shift system.

As a result, when this year’s exam notification was issued, aspirants began demanding that the exam be held in a single shift. Two related petitions were filed in the Supreme Court. The first, submitted by Dr Ishika Jain and a group of aspirants, called for the release of answer keys, individual scorecards, and the establishment of a grievance redressal mechanism for NEET-PG 2024. The petitioners argued that the absence of these measures compromises transparency and fairness.

The second petition, filed by the United Doctors’ Front, challenged the two-shift format of NEET-PG 2025. It raised concerns about variations in question paper difficulty and questioned the lack of transparency in the score normalisation process, calling for a more equitable and open evaluation system.

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Understanding Normalisation: Why It Matters In Multi-Shift Exams?

When lakhs of students apply for the same exam, it’s often held in multiple shifts or on different days. Each shift gets a different question paper. Sometimes, one paper might be slightly easier or harder than the others. To make things fair for everyone, a process called normalisation is used.

So, what is normalisation and how does it work?

Let’s say there are three sets of papers — A, B, and C.

• Students who got Set A scored an average of 70 marks

• Students with Set B scored an average of 75 marks

• Students with Set C scored an average of 80 marks

This shows that Set C was the easiest (because students scored higher) and Set A was the toughest (because students scored lower).

To make it fair:

• Students who attempted the easier set (Set C) may have a few marks reduced

• Students who attempted the tougher set (Set A) may get some extra marks

This process helps ensure that no one gets an unfair advantage just because they got an easier or harder question paper.

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