The Supreme Court on Friday directed the National Board of Examination (NBE) to hold the NEET-PG 2025 on June 15 in a single shift, to ensure transparency.
The Bench of Justice Vikram Nath, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice NV Anjaria observed that holding the exam in two shifts would lead to arbitrariness since the question papers in two shifts could never be of the same difficulty level. Some variation was bound to occur and this would not give the students a level-playing field, it added.
Appearing for the National Board of Exams, Senior Advocate Maninder Acharya, contended that in 2024, NEET UG had to be cancelled due to malpractices. Since the examination was being held online in 2025, there were limited centres. There was a lack of infrastructure for Wi-Fi and good computers. The solution had been given after considering all possible problems, including safety and security issues.
She said since the exam was scheduled to take place on June 15, any Court interference would result in the cancellation of the exam and delay the admission process.
When the Bench pointed out that the double shift was not done for the NEET-UG, which had more candidates, the Counsel said all important examinations, such as CAT, IN-CET, IIT-JEE and CUET, involving a large number of candidates, were held in two shifts. There was no difference in difficulty level and even if there is a difference, normalisation was applied, she added.
Noting that the examination may have been held in two shifts in 2024 in the facts and circumstances of that stage, the Apex Court said normalisation may be applied in exceptional cases but not in a routine manner year after year.
The top court of the country further rejected the NBE’s argument that there were not enough centres to hold the exam in a single shift. Considering the technological advancements in the country, it was hard to believe that the examining body would not find enough centres to hold the examination in one shift, it said.
When Acharya said that out of over 2.5 lakh candidates, only a handful had approached the Court, the Bench even if one student had a legitimate grievance, the Court would interfere.
Noting that there was still time of more than two weeks for the examination, the Bench directed the respondents to make arrangements for holding the examination in one shift and also ensure that full transparency was maintained and that secured centres were identified for the process.
The Apex Court passed the order on a batch of petitions challenging the decision of the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in two shifts.
The Counsel for the petitioners submitted that the double-shift exam gave priority to luck over merit.
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