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The Supreme Court today heard a petition related to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024 exam. A three-judge bench led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice JB Pardiwala heard the matter on September 20 related to the normalisation of marks, answer keys and result of the medical entrance exam.
Candidates who appeared in NEET PG exam have raised concerns on transparency of results and normalisation process followed by the National Board of Examinations for Medical Sciences (NBEMS). The petition was submitted on September 7 and was earlier heard on September 13.
Through this petition, the petitioners have demanded that NBE should release the NEET PG answer key, response sheets, raw and pre-normalised scores and normalised results of all shifts. They have also demanded that release of the NEET PG answer keys, question papers should become a standard practice to ensure transparency. Petitioners have also requested the Court to suspend the counselling process till all concerns are addressed.
The Bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija and lawyer Tanvi Dubey and questioned Centre of change of exam pattern ‘three days before the exam’.
“There needs to be a standardised approach,” Makhija said and added there were no regulations to ascertain as to how the exams were to be conducted. “Everything was dependent on a single information bulletin which can be modified at the whims and fancies of the authorities.” NBE’s counsel, however, denied the allegations.
“It is very unusual… Three days before the examinations (exam pattern was changed) …students will have a meltdown,” CJI said. The matter is now listed on September 27.
This year, NEET PG was being conducted in two shifts, instead of the usual one single-shift format. The exam was conducted on August 11 in two shifts — first from 9 am to 12:30 pm and the next from 3:30 to 7 pm. With the new system in place, the Board had to adopt normalisation process.
“NBEMS has adopted the process which is currently being used by AIIMS-New Delhi for its various examinations conducted in more than one shift including but not limited to INI-CET, in preparation of result for NEET-PG 2024,” the official NBEMS notice stated.
Results for each shift will be prepared in the form of raw scores and percentages, NBEMS said while announcing the normalisation process. Percentiles up to seven decimal places for the total score shall be calculated. The resolution of ties will be as per the scheme of the examination published in the prospectus. In case the same is not mentioned in the prospectus, older by age will be ranked higher in tie cases.
