The Court, in its ruling, stated that holding the exam in two shifts leads to arbitrariness and directed the NBE to make necessary arrangements for conducting it in a single shift.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Friday directed the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBE) to conduct the NEET PG 2025 examination in one single shift.
A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, PV Sanjay Kumar, and NV Anjaria passed the order, rejecting the NBE’s argument that conducting the exam in a single shift would create safety and security concerns due to a lack of examination centres.
The Court questioned the NBE’s logic, pointing out that the undergraduate exam (NEET UG) was successfully conducted in a single shift.
The Bench clearly stated “NEET UG was also held in a single shift, then why not PG?”
During the hearing, the Court strongly supported the students’ concerns and said:
“Even if only one or two students have filed a petition, if their argument is correct then the court will have to intervene. Last year, the exam was held in two shifts under special circumstances, but this cannot become a general rule now.”
The Court emphasized that holding NEET PG in two different shifts creates unfairness.
“Having the exam in two shifts leads to arbitrariness. Conducting the exam in two shifts creates inequality and it cannot give equal opportunity to all the candidates. Processes like normalization should be applied only in special cases, not every year. Apart from this, the court said that there is no shortage of technology and resources in India, enough centers can be made for the exam in one shift across the country.”
The Supreme Court Bench also noted that the exam is still more than two weeks away, giving enough time for necessary changes.
“There is more than two weeks left for the exam, so NBE has enough time to identify new centers and conduct the exam in one shift. The court has ordered NBE to maintain transparency and ensure safe centers. Apart from this, it also said that all the necessary arrangements should be completed as soon as possible.”
Earlier, NBE had defended the two-shift plan by saying they used statistical methods like normalization to ensure fairness in marks. But even with that, issues were raised.
The NBE admitted “Statistical methods were used to equalize the marks, but despite this, the results last year seemed biased. Most of the top rankers had given the exam in the first shift, which led to allegations of one-sided results.”
However, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of students, saying that fairness and transparency must come first.
What Did the Students Say?
Students had voiced strong concerns against the two-shift system. They argued that even a slight difference in the difficulty level of question papers could severely impact their rankings in such a competitive exam.
Rashi Yadav, a student preparing for NEET PG, shared her experience and said:
“In this difficult exam, even one mark can push the ranking down by thousands of places. If someone gets an easy paper, our dream may remain unfulfilled. There is no way that can equalize the difficulty of the papers of both the shifts. We are not asking for any special rights, we only want a fair exam, which is possible only in one shift.”
Previous Hearing
On 26th May, The Supreme Court agreed to hear a petition challenging the National Board of Examination’s decision to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 exam in two shifts.
As per the official schedule, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate courses (NEET-PG) 2025 is set to take place on June 15, in two shifts on a computer-based testing platform. The results are expected to be announced by July 15.
Chief Justice of India (CJI BR Gavai) gave this assurance, raising hopes that students might finally get justice.
A bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih took note of the lawyer’s submissions and assured that the petition will be listed for hearing soon.
The petition challenged a notification released by the NBEMS on April 16, which officially announced that NEET-PG 2025 will be conducted in two shifts on June 15.
Background
Students of NEET PG have filed multiple petitions in the Supreme Court
Their key issues are:
Currently, NEET PG is held in two different shifts. Because of this, the results are declared based on a normalization process, which adjusts scores to account for the different difficulty levels of the shifts. But students argue that this is unfair and non-transparent.
They say it creates confusion and makes it harder to understand how scores are calculated. Many believe that conducting the exam in one shift would be the most fair and transparent way to handle this.
Students also want the NBEMS (National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences) to release the question papers and answer keys after the exam. This will help them understand how they performed and whether they answered correctly.
ALSO READ: [NEET-PG 2024] Supreme Court to Hear Case Today (Dec 03)
As the petition explains, releasing the question paper and key allows for better self-assessment. Students can learn from their mistakes and know exactly where they stand. In fact, this demand was formally raised in September last year through a petition in the Supreme Court.
The petition clearly said:
“They demanded that the exam conducting agency NBEMS release the question paper and the answer key of the students.”
And added:
“This will help the students to get a correct idea of their result and they will be able to prepare better.”
ALSO READ: NEET PG: Supreme Court to Hear Petitions Challenging Normalisation Process on May 22
During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer informed the court:
“The admit card is going to be issued on June 2, so the hearing should be done soon.”
Listening to this, Chief Justice BR Gavai assured:
“The matter will be listed soon.”
This statement has now raised expectations among NEET PG aspirants that their concerns will be addressed quickly.
Case Name: Dr. ADITI & ORS v. NATIONAL BOARD OF EXAMINATION IN MEDICAL SCIENCES & ORS| DIARY NO. – 22918/2025
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