NBE NEET PG 2026 answer key disclosure challenged in SC- Plea seeks release of actual questions, options

New Delhi: Challenging the manner in which the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) disclosed the answer key and responses of the candidates for the NEET PG 2026, a plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking disclosure of the actual questions and options presented to each candidate to enable independent verification of their scores.

The Democratic Medical Association (DMA) has filed the plea on behalf of doctors who appeared in the postgraduate medical entrance test (NEET-PG 2026) this year.

Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, the petition seeks to ensure greater transparency and candidate-level verification in the NEET-PG examination process.

The NEET-PG examination was conducted on 30 August 2026, and the results were declared on 24 September 2026. The matter is presently pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court.

The association has challenged the NBEMS notice dated October 1, 2026, to the extent that it limits post-result disclosure for NEET-PG 2026 to numerical identifiers. According to the notice dated October 1, 2026, candidates can view a question-wise evaluation using their applicant logins.

Also Read: NEET PG: Does publishing answer keys compromise exam integrity? Supreme Court to decide

According to a Lawchakra report, the plea has argued that candidates can view the Question ID, the numerical ID of the correct answer, the candidate’s recorded response and the marks awarded for each question. However, they cannot view the text of the question or of the options in the order the candidate actually saw them on screen.

The plea mentioned that the candidates had specifically asked NBEMS for the actual question paper, the official answer key and their recorded responses rather than identifiers. It further claimed that the NBEMS answered such grievances with standard replies describing the declared results as “factual and correct” and pointing candidates to Point No. 9 of its public notice of September 24.

In its plea, the petitioner has highlighted that NBEMS shuffles both the sequence of questions and the order of options separately for each candidate. Therefore, under that format, despite knowing that one numbered option was correct and another numbered option was chosen, it tells the candidate nothing about what those options actually said, or whether the right question and option sequence was linked to their record.

The plea has argued that at best the present system allows a candidate to recheck the arithmetic of their marks. However, it does not allow them to test the answer key itself to point out ambiguous questions or questions with more than one correct answer, or to detect errors in how questions, options and responses were mapped to their individual paper.

Reliefs sought:

The association has urged the Apex Court to quash the October 1 notice to the extent that it confines disclosure to Question IDs, numerical answer and response IDs and question-wise marks. Further, directions have been sought to the NBEMS to make the full candidate-wise examination record available through individual logins. The plea said that such record should show each question in the order presented, the complete options in the candidate’s own sequence, the recorded response, the correct answer under the final key and the marks awarded, and should be downloadable as a permanent electronic copy in PDF, CSV or a similar format.

Further, it has sought a time-bound window for candidates to object to specific questions once they have seen them, a subject-expert committee to decide those objections with liberty to place authoritative medical material before it, and consequential correction of scores and ranks wherever errors are found.

The prayers are not limited to this year only. The petition asks for guidelines or a standard operating procedure to build a transparent post-examination disclosure system into future postgraduate medical entrance exams.

In a recent release, the association reiterated its demands, including a secure and candidate-specific verification mechanism through which every candidate should have access to the actual questions and options presented to the candidate, the recorded responses, and the official answer key.

Further, the association has also demanded that marks be awarded on a question-wise basis. Other demands include a secure facility to obtain the complete examination record, a reasonable and clearly defined window for raising objections, and correction of marks or rank wherever an examination-related error is established.

According to the association, this is not a demand for any special benefit, but a demand for transparency and the right to verification.

"NEET-PG is not merely an examination for thousands of young doctors; it is a decisive milestone in their careers. When a difference of a few marks can affect a candidate’s rank and subsequent postgraduate career choices, transparency cannot remain a mere formality. The process must be transparent and verifiable," National President of DMA India mentioned in a release.

"Our demand is very simple—every candidate should have the opportunity to see what was presented before them, what response they recorded, what the official answer was, and on what basis their marks were determined. Transparency protects the confidence of both candidates and the examination system," he further added.

The plea by DMA has been filed against the Union of India, National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), and National Medical Commission (NMC) through the Legal Cell for Doctors, Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput, and Advocate-on-Record Ms. Neema.

Commenting on the issue, Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput said, "This petition seeks meaningful disclosure of examination-related information so that every candidate can independently verify the basis of the marks awarded to them. It is not a demand for blanket re-evaluation."

"When marks and ranks directly affect the subsequent counselling process, candidates should have a clear and verifiable mechanism to raise genuine objections. The matter is now before the Hon’ble Supreme Court, and the further course will be subject to the directions of the Court," he added.

The plea has referred to the order in the case of Upendra Yadav v. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences. In this case, the manner of disclosing Question IDs, answer keys and responses with reference to the Master Set of NEET-PG 2025 was questioned. Referring to this, the plea argued that the demand for an intelligible and verifiable disclosure mechanism has resurfaced across successive exam cycles.

Pointing out that NEET-PG 2026 scores and ranks will decide the counselling and admission of PG medical aspirants, the plea has argued that any delay in giving candidates a real chance to verify and correct their scores risks counselling moving ahead before errors can be fixed.

Also Read: What's the logic? Supreme Court to examine NBE's NEET PG non-disclosure policy