NEET PG dilemma continues! Hearing in Supreme Court Postponed Again
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: In a setback for the National Eligibility--Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 candidates, the hearing for the plea seeking the release of the NEET PG answer key for 2024 has been deferred once again.
Even though the plea was scheduled for a hearing today before a top court bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih, sources informed Edex Live that the matter was reportedly not taken up due to the formation of a special Supreme Court bench in the second half of the day.
A group of NEET PG aspirants filed the plea before the Supreme Court alleging that there was a lack of transparency and adherence to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by NBE, which conducted the NEET PG 2024 exam.
This is not the first time that the plea has been deferred, despite being scheduled for hearing before the Supreme Court. After the filing of the plea in September last year, time and again, the plea has been postponed for various reasons.
Also Read: NEET PG 2024 Answer Key matter hearing tomorrow in SC
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.
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. Thereafter, the matter was deferred again on later dates. Even though the plea was slated for a hearing today, it got deferred once again.
As per the latest media report by Edex Live, the primary petitioner, Dr Ishika Jain expressed her disappointment over the repeated deferments. She told the Daily, "We will mention our case for hearing again, but the same thing keeps happening." She further added, "For the past two to three months, our matter has been listed, but it never comes up for hearing. They list it for the next week, and then again, it doesn’t reach the bench. That’s the conclusion — it just keeps getting pushed back."
Explaining how the deferment of the plea over the past few months has affected aspirants, Dr. Jain stated that despite preparing for every scheduled hearing, the matter was never addressed.
She told Edex Live, "Every time, we prepare for the hearing, but the same cycle repeats. Now, with NEET-PG 2025 coming up on June 15, they are again planning to conduct it in two shifts. We already know their methodology is flawed. It’s depressing to see what’s happening in the medical field these days."
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.
Also Read: NEET PG 2024 Plea Deferred Again! SC to Hear Matter likely on January 7, 2025
