The Supreme Court has delayed the NEET-PG 2024 hearing again to January 8, 2025, marking eight postponements. Concerns over exam transparency include a lack of published answer keys and discrepancies in scorecards. Petitioners also criticized a recently introduced normalization process and an exam format change, questioning the fairness of the evaluation system.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has once again deferred the hearing of the writ petition concerning the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024. Initially scheduled for today, the matter will now be heard on January 8, 2025, marking the eighth postponement since December 10.
The case revolves around ensuring transparency in the NEET-PG 2024 medical entrance exam and demands the publication of answer keys and other related measures.
What Happened in Court Today?
During today’s proceedings, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hedge urgently mentioned the matter before a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih, particularly in the context of the third round of NEET-PG counselling. Hedge emphasized the urgency of addressing concerns related to the counselling process, which concluded on January 4, 2025.
Justice Gavai, engaged in another case, stated,
“Just ask someone to mention the matter tomorrow. If counselling is over, we will dispose of the matter. It’s not like we will order fresh counselling.”
What Does the Petition Seek?
The petitioners raised serious concerns over the lack of transparency in the exam. The plea stated:
“There is a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of NEET-PG 2024 since none of the documents which can allow a student to check his/her performance are supplied by the Respondents i.e. neither the (a) question paper, nor (b) response sheet filled in by candidates, nor (c) answer key.”
Instead, candidates were provided only with a scorecard, which included details of correctly and incorrectly attempted sections. Petitioners pointed out discrepancies in the total number of attempted questions, as reflected in the scorecards, highlighting a potential flaw in the evaluation process.
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Issues with Normalisation
Grievances were also raised about the newly introduced score normalization procedure, which was based on a system previously used by AIIMS. The plea called this process arbitrary, stating:
“The normalization procedure has completely altered the ranks that students expected to obtain… It has led to clumping of students at each decimal, which would not have happened in case of counting of actual marks.”
Exam Format Change
The petition also objected to the format change made just a month before the exam, splitting it into two sessions with separate papers for each session. This, they argued, violates the National Board of Examination (NBE) guidelines, which mandate a single, common examination.
The Supreme Court will now hear the case tomorrow. With counselling already concluded, it remains to be seen how the court addresses the petitioners’ concerns regarding transparency and fairness in NEET-PG 2024.
Stay tuned for updates!
Case Details: ISHIKA JAIN AND ORS. Versus NATIONAL BOARD OF EXAMINATION AND ORS. W.P.(C) No. 583/2024
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