Supreme Court Defers NEET PG Answer Key plea hearing to July 15
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The plea seeking release of answer key for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 examination will now be heard in July as the Apex Court has deferred the matter for a hearing till July 15, 2025.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the plea was filed by a group of NEET PG aspirants who alleged that there was a lack of transparency and adherence to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) by the National Board of Examinations (NBEMS), which conducted the NEET PG 2024 exam.
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. They argued 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.
Also Read: NEET PG Transparency Case: When is Next Supreme Court Hearing? Here's What We Know
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.
However, since September 2024, when the plea was filed, it has been deferred multiple times. Initially, while considering the NEET PG transparency plea, 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 the Union Government, asking them to file their counter within a week.
During the hearing of the case 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. The hearing on March 25, 2025 got deferred due to the formation of a special Supreme Court bench in the second half of the day. Again, the hearing scheduled on April 8, May 20 were deferred
While considering the matter, the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice of India Gavai and Justice AG Masih remarked that the pleas mainly concerned NEET PG 2024 and the matter now seemed infructuous. However, the petitioners' counsel had pointed out that the present batch concerned the larger issues of marks normalisation, correction of answer keys and discrepancies in marks.
Also Read: NEET PG Evaluation Row: SC Lists Plea on Normalisation, Transparency for May 20
