NEET PG 2024 Answer Key matter hearing tomorrow in SC
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The long pending plea seeking the release of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 examination's answer key is set for hearing before the Supreme Court tomorrow i.e. March 25.
Finally, the Apex Court bench is set to take up the matter when the medical fraternity across the country is urging the National Board of Examinations (NBE) and the Union Health Ministry to conduct the upcoming NEET PG 2025 exam in a single shift to ensure transparency.
The pending plea before the Supreme Court has been filed by a group of NEET PG aspirants who alleged that there was a lack of transparency and adherence to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by NBE, which conducted the NEET PG 2024 exam. Even though the plea was filed last year in September, it has been deferred multiple times.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that while considering the matter, the Supreme Court on September 20 had expressed displeasure over the last-minute changes in the exam pattern by NBE. Terming it to be "unusual", the Apex Court bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had issued notices to the NBE and Union Government, asking them to file their counter within a week.
Also Read: NEET PG 2024 Plea Deferred Again! SC to Hear Matter likely on January 7, 2025
However, during the hearing on September 30, the plea was postponed as no one appeared on behalf of the Central Government. On that day, CJI Chandrachud requested all the Additional Solicitor Generals (ASGs) to be present for the upcoming hearing on October 4, 2024.
Later, the plea once again got postponed on October 25 as NBE had pointed out before the top court bench that while they had filed a detailed response, the Union Government had not. The NBE's counsel pointed out that the presence of the Central Government was required because, even though NBE had the charge of conducting the exam, the counselling and admission process is monitored by the Centre. Consequently, the matter was deferred more than once. Thereafter, the matter was deferred again on the later dates.
Now, the matter has been listed for further hearing tomorrow i.e. 25.03.2024, as per the Supreme Court's website.
What are the Demands of the Candidates:
In their plea filed before the apex court, NEET-PG aspirants claimed that the introduction of two shifts, normalisation method, and change in the tie-breaker criterion just three days before the examination affected the students adversely.
The petitioners contended that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be amended at the whims and fancy of the authorities and no rules or regulations existed governing the conduct of examinations.
It challenged the National Board Of Examinations (NBE) practice of not disclosing question papers, answer keys, or response sheets of candidates for the exam this year.
The plea said that there was a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of the examination since none of the documents allowed students to check their performance, adding that neither the question paper, nor the response sheet filled in by candidates, or an answer key was supplied to the students, and merely a scorecard had been provided.
The petition, filed by advocate Parul Shukla, highlighted that unlike previous years where the candidate used to receive their total score along with the number of correctly attempted questions and the number of incorrectly attempted questions, the results released on August 23 this year did not provide the total score of the candidate.
"The method/manner in which examination under the NEET PG 2024 is conducted by the respondents (authorities) is manifestly arbitrary and against the principles of transparency and fairness in state action as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India," it added.
The plea said that NEET-PG had never been held in two shifts before and had always remained a single-shift and single-day examination to ensure a uniform examination standard and fairness of the national exam.
It highlighted a "serious patent defect in the conduct of the examination", requiring redressal in order to achieve a clean, transparent and effective system of examination which gives the best candidates.
"The NEET-PG is a multidisciplinary exam where one’s rank also determines their ability to opt for the course and field of their choice. Any slight variation in marks would bar several candidates from specialising in their field of interest," it added.
NEET PG 2025 in Two Shifts:
The matter will be taken up by the Supreme Court amid the continuous objections raised by doctors across the country against NBE's recent announcement to conduct the NEET PG 2025 exam in two shifts instead of one.
This decision sparked a significant backlash among medical aspirants and professionals, primarily due to concerns over the normalization formula, which was introduced to adjust the scores across different exam shifts to ensure fairness. However, critics have argued that the process is flawed.
Also Read: Demand for NEET PG 2025 in Single Shift Escalates!
