What's the logic? Supreme Court to examine NBE's NEET PG question paper answer key non-disclosure policy

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India recently expressed concerns about the logic behind the non-disclosure policy of NEET PG question papers and answer keys adopted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) NBE.

The NEET PG 2025 exam for the academic year 2025-26 was held on August 3, 2025, and the result was declared on August 29, 2025.

Medical Dialogues has been reporting on the issue surrounding the publication of the answer key. NBEMS had published the NEET PG answer key in 2025, following the Supreme Court's orders dated April 29 to publish the raw scores, answer keys, and normalisation formula for transparency in multi-shift NEET-PG exams.

However, candidates who appeared in the NEET PG 2025 were disappointed with the pattern of the disclosure, as while the NBE published question IDs and the correct answers, the questions themselves had not been published.

Taking to social media platforms, the candidates called out the alleged discrepancies in the answer key. Referring to the fact that NBE released the answer key after the publication of results, some of the candidates termed it a mere formality on the part of the Board to comply with the Apex Court's order.

Now, during a recent hearing, a bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Vijay Bishnoi took up a batch of pleas seeking disclosure of answer keys and question papers of NEET-PG.

Last week, the Court had sought the report of the expert committee, which had opined that no one except examinees should read the contents of the test.

According to the LiveLaw report, Justice Narasimha observed that the Court was not convinced and would examine the issue in detail. He remarked, “We will hear this matter in detail. We still need justification for this. We are not fully convinced. We will examine this. It doesn't stand logic to us, merely because correct answers are correct answers.”

The hearing took place pursuant to the Court's earlier order asking the NBE to place on record its policy on non-disclosure. In compliance with the order, NBE filed an affidavit dated November 28, 2025, defending its non-disclosure policy, highlighting that the disclosure of question papers and answer keys would lead to their misuse and exploitation, particularly by the coaching industry.

“The question bank prepared by the answering Respondent are limited and is an invaluable and envious national asset for all times to come. The policy of non-disclosure being followed by the answering Respondent aims to safeguard the said scarce national asset and prevent its misuse and exploitation, especially by the coaching industry, who would prepare model questions and question papers using the original question papers”, the affidavit stated, as quoted by LiveLaw.

The bench was informed that a five-member expert committee constituted in 2012 to finalise the modalities of conducting NEET-PG as a computer-based examination had recommended the non-disclosure policy. The committee had recommended strict measures to ensure sanctity, secrecy and confidentiality of the examination, including a condition that no one except examinees should read the contents of the test at any time, and that examinees should be bound by a non-disclosure agreement.

Then, these recommendations were approved by the governing body of the NBE in its meeting held on May 4, 2012.

It further stated that the policy of non-disclosure was incorporated in the Information Bulletin for NEET-PG 2013, which explicitly prohibited candidates from publishing, reproducing or transmitting any part of the test content, and warned that any violation would invite penal action and cancellation of candidature. The NBE asserted that this policy has been consistently followed not only in NEET-PG but also in earlier All India Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examinations conducted by it, adds the daily.

The affidavit further pointed to the process behind preparing the PG medical entrance test. It highlighted that NEET-PG is a specialised examination where questions of an appropriate difficulty level are very limited in number. The question bank, according to the NBE, is prepared through a detailed process involving subject experts from government medical colleges, item-writing workshops, validation workshops and assignment of difficulty levels. It stated that experts involved in the process are bound by confidentiality clauses and that all intellectual property rights over the questions vest with the NBE.

The NBE pointed out that making such material available would encourage rote learning and would turn the examination into a test of memory rather than an assessment of a candidate's understanding and clinical acumen.

"Unlike subjects such as mathematics or physics, medical science questions cannot be easily multiplied or altered by changing variables, and that maintaining an appropriate difficulty level further restricts the pool of usable questions," the affidavit further stated

Citing parity, the NBE highlighted that premier institutions such as AIIMS, NIMHANS and SCTIMST do not disclose question papers and answer keys of their postgraduate medical entrance examinations.