NEET-PG exam: SC seeks Centre's response on 'lack of transparency' issue; next hearing on Sep 30

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to respond to a petition challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance (NEET)-PG 2024 examination.

A bench presided over by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud was apprised by senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, representing the petitioners, that the Union Health Ministry has failed to appear before the court despite due notice.

At this, CJI Chandrachud-led Bench asked advocate-on-record Parul Shukla to inform the office of the Solicitor General, the second-highest law officer of the Centre, and posted the matter for hearing September 30 since NEET-PG counselling has already commenced.

The NEET-PG exam was conducted by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) on August 11 and the results were announced on August 23.

Last week, the Bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, agreed to examine the plea and sought the response of the NBE and the Union government in the matter.

In their plea, NEET-PG aspirants claimed that the introduction of two shifts, normalisation method, and change in the tie-breaker criterion just three days before the examination affected the students adversely.

The petitioners contended before the SC that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be amended at the whims and fancy of the authorities and no rules or regulations existed governing the conduct of examinations.

The plea 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 scorecard had been provided.

The petition, filed by 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.