Supreme Court notice to NBE, MCC over plea seeking release of NEET PG Question Paper, Answer Key
New Delhi: Agreeing to examine a plea seeking directions to the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to release the question paper and answer key of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) Examination, the Supreme Court recently issued notices to the NBE in this regard.
The NBE, Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and other authorities have been asked by a vacation bench of the Apex Court to submit their response on the plea.
"Issue notice returnable on 8th of July, 2024. In the meantime, respondents may file their counter affidavits," ordered the top court bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and S.V.N. Bhatti.
The plea filed directly before the apex court assailed the "arbitrary act and decision" of NBE of not releasing the question paper, answer key, and answer sheet for NEET-PG 2022 and not allowing any option to re-evaluate the score even after knowing the fact that there were "serious discrepancies" in the scores of the candidates who appeared for the exam in recent past, i.e., for NEET-PG 2021 and NEET-PG 2022.
"There are no other competitive exams in India, with such lack of transparency and complete one-sided flow of information as NEET-PG," said the plea filed through advocate Charu Mathur.
It added that the NEET-UG conducted by NTA gives an option to candidates to challenge the answer keys and several other prestigious exams, including IIT-JEE, CMAT, CLAT, and judicial services examinations, also give an option to challenge the answer keys, IANS has reported.
However, the information bulletin published by NEET-PG 2024, following the trend of previous years, bars requests for accessing answer sheets and debars the petitioner from exercising her constitutional right and legitimate right to access her answer sheets even under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, the plea said.
During the hearing, the National Testing Agency (NTA) said it is not a necessary party to the litigation and may be deleted from the array of parties. "The PG (entrance exam) is conducted by the National Board of Examination," submitted NTA’s counsel.
After hearing the submission, Justice Bhatti said, "You may put it on record. When we pass an order, we will use our discretion under Supreme Court rules and delete you from the array of parties."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that doctors had filed pleas before the Supreme Court alleging serious discrepancies in the NEET-PG 2022 exam. In the plea, the MBBS graduates challenged the decision of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBE) of not releasing the answer keys and question paper for the exam.
The doctors had also requested the court to set up a High Power Committee to examine the instances of alleged discrepancies in the scores so that fairness and transparency in the evaluation mechanism could be ensured. Apart from this, the plea further requested the court to frame guidelines for publishing question papers and answer keys after the examination.
It had also sought direction upon NBE for uploading individual OMR answer sheets in login account along with the question paper and the corresponding answer key, immediately after the examination and provide the candidates with an answer key and question paper for the exam, especially when they file an RTI application.
However, recently on June 11, 2024 the Apex Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Ahsanuddin Amanullah dismissed the plea after observing it to be infructuous after the lapse of considerable time.
"These petitions are rendered infructuous due to the passage of time. In case the petitioners still have a grievance concerning the NEET examination of Undergraduate or Post-Graduate held in the year 2024, they may assail it on admissible grounds. These petitions are accordingly dismissed," observed the bench.
Also Read: Supreme Court junks Plea Alleging Discrepancies in NEET PG 2022 Scores
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