Alleged breach in evaluation protocol: HC notice to Gujarat University, NMC PG Board

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the Gujarat University and the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) after more than 30 medical students, who failed their postgraduate medical exams, filed pleas before the High Court seeking legal redress.

These students, who failed the exams by a narrow margin, argued that their answer scripts should have been marked by two evaluators as required by regulations. They claimed that only one examiner assessed their papers.

Due to this apparent breach of protocol, which has been claimed by the petitioners, the Court has listed the matter for an urgent hearing on May 12.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that altogether 115 postgraduate medical students, enrolled at Gujarat University, failed the final MD/MS postgraduate medical examinations conducted in January this year. The Gujarat University held the final exams for the PG MD MS students from affiliated medical colleges, including B J Medical College, NHL Medical College, and L G Medical College in January this year.

Among these 115 students, there were allegations that many of the students had failed by just one or two marks. However, it was alleged that grace marks were not awarded to them as per the regulations.

Also Read: 115 PG Medicos Fail Final Exams, Protest Staged Alleging Improper Evaluation

Soon, the situation led to a major controversy as the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a protest recently alleging improper online rechecking of answer sheets. However, the Gujarat University had defended the examination process and checking of answer sheets by pointing out that the overall pass percentage in the exam is 86%.

As per the latest media report by Ahmedabad Mirror, now more than 30 students have approached the Gujarat High Court seeking legal redress. While one petition has been filed by Ankit Sangani and 25 others, another plea has been filed by one Kartavya Mistry and seven colleagues. All these students appeared for their postgraduate medical examinations in January this year.

The counsel for the petitioner students, Advocate Aditya Bhatt, pointed out that Gujarat University failed to follow Regulation 8.4 of the 2023 Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER). These rules clearly required a double evaluation of theory answer papers. Bhatt noted that the exams took place in January 2025, well after the new regulations came into force.

Further, Mirror has reported that information obtained through RTI applications uncovered serious shortcomings in the marking process. Allegedly, some pages were not evaluated at all. It has been claimed that even though the students raised formal complaints with Gujarat University, the students received vague responses that did not address their concerns.

According to the current regulations, averaging marks from two evaluators to determine results is required, and if their scores differ by more than 15%, a third evaluation becomes necessary. It has been claimed by the petitioners that the failures occurred by small margins because the papers underwent only a single evaluation.

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