NEET PG 2024 Transparency matter: Supreme Court Refuses to Order Fresh Counselling
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: While hearing the plea seeking measures to ensure increased transparency in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) exams, the Supreme Court has clarified that it would not order fresh counselling if the counselling process were over.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a plea was filed before the Supreme Court seeking disclosure of the answer keys and question papers of the NEET-PG 2024 exam, among other measures to ensure increased transparency.
Yesterday, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde made an urgent mention of the matter before the top court bench in respect to the third round of counselling in the NEET-PG exam and sought an immediate hearing of the matter.
Meanwhile, the counsel for the authorities informed the Court that the counselling for the 3rd round had already commenced and in fact, it ended on January 4, 2025.
Also Read: Postponed Again! SC Defers NEET PG 2024 Hearing for the 4th Time
Taking note of this, the Apex Court bench Justices BR Gavai and AG Masih mentioned that the Court would not be able to hear the matter as they were already in the middle of hearing another matter. Accordingly, the Supreme Court bench asked the counsel to mention the matter the next day, Live Law has reported.
"Just ask someone to mention the matter tomorrow. If counselling is over, we will dispose of the matter. It's not like we will order fresh counselling," clarified the bench.
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.
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
