NEET PG 2025 on August 3: Supreme Court to hear NBE's plea tomorrow
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India is likely to hear the NEET PG 2025 postponement application filed by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) tomorrow, i.e. Friday, June 6, 2025.
This development follows a recent directive from the Court mandating that the exam be conducted in a single shift to ensure fairness and transparency. In response, NBEMS has proposed August 3, 2025, as the new date for the examination and sought an urgent hearing on the matter. A final decision on the date will follow the apex court's deliberation.
NEET PG 2025 Postponement:
The PG medical entrance test- NEET PG 2025, initially scheduled for June 15, 2025, was deferred by the NBE following the directions from the apex court. Releasing official notifications, the NBE announced the postponement and clarified that revised dates will only be notified after the apex court's approval.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the doctors were demanding clarity from the NBE regarding the exam date for NEET PG 2025- the gateway to PG medical admissions in the country. Plenty of rumours and speculations were doing the rounds on social media after the Supreme Court verdict directing the NBE to conduct the NEET PG 2025 in a single shift.
"Holding the exam in two shifts leads to arbitrariness and cannot give a level playing field. The question papers in the two shifts can never be of the same difficulty level. Last year it may have been held in two shifts in the facts and circumstances of that stage. But the examining body ought to have considered making arrangements for holding examination in one shift," the Apex Court bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and NK Anjaria had observed.
Therefore, to prepare for the single shift conduction of NEET PG 2025, the NBE moved the Supreme Court seeking the postponement of the exam to August 3, 2025.
In its application, the NBE mentioned that August 3 is the earliest possible date given by its technology partner, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to conduct the exam in a single shift.
As per the TCS, the time remaining between May 30 and June 15 was insufficient to hold the exam in a single shift, as now there will be a requirement to provide a greater number of Centres in a greater number of Cities and an extensive hardware supply chain management.
"The current booking of test centres is double the capacity as the examination was planned at the centres in two shifts...1000+ Centres shall need to be booked and engaged which will require considerable time. The infrastructure needed to be engaged to execute a shift of 242679 Candidates with Buffer would require Infrastructure for 2.70 Lakh to be made available across the country which will require considerable amount of time," the application stated.
With the postponement and preparation for the single shift exam, the application process will also be reconducted.
It was further mentioned in the plea that the application window will need to be reopened and candidates will need to be given a fresh opportunity to opt for the test city of their choice in accordance with the Information Bulletin. After the receipt of new test city choices from the candidates, the distribution of candidates at the test centres shall need to be done afresh. This process would also take some time. After the completion of the aforementioned process, candidates will be informed of their test city at least two weeks prior to the date of the examination and the admit card informing the candidates of their specific centre at least 4 days before the said exam for the purposes of enabling the candidates to make appropriate arrangements for travel, etc. to take the exam.
There will also be a requirement for additional manpower, ranging from Invigilators, Security Staff, Network Admins, etc. "The hiring of a high volume of quality manpower, Training, and preparation of such a high number of Manpower and conducting multiple dry runs and mocks with them would require considerable time," the application added.
Considering NEET PG is a high-stakes exam, NBE highlighted that tackling malpractices is a major challenge for which all law enforcement agencies will be required to join hands.
Across-the-board, to hold the exam smoothly after shifting to single shift pattern, the NBE has cited reasons like the time required for arranging secure examination premises, an adequate number of compatible computer systems, three-tier power backup systems, network infrastructure, security software and hardware, trained technical manpower, anti-cheating and surveillance measures, operational readiness of each test centre, mock drills, load tests, system audits.
Hearing on June 6:
Confirmation regarding the NEET PG 2025 postponement hearing before the Supreme Court comes from a recent X post by Advocate Satyam Singh Rajpoot
