The Supreme Court on September 4, heard a plea filed by NEET PG aspirants demanding full disclosure of exam questions and answer keys to ensure transparency. The bench, however, adjourned the matter to next week after questioning the intent behind the petition. Originally slated for a hearing in October, the plea was taken up on September 4 after an urgent application. Petitioners argued that the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) had initially promised to release the complete set of questions with the answer key, but later issued a “corrective notice” restricting disclosure to only question IDs. The bench asked the petitioners: “Why do you think there is no transparency? Is it because you got less marks?” Observing that candidates often invoke Article 32 to challenge the process, the court remarked that such pleas sometimes exploit the system rather than improve it. Aspirants maintained that publishing only question IDs makes verification impossible, as the actual answers cannot be checked without the corresponding questions. The court has now directed the respondents to compile the paperwork and listed the matter for hearing next week. Moreover, the top court also dismissed the plea to stop NEET PG counselling amid the ongoing case on transparency. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by aspirants soon after the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) announced its plan to release the NEET PG answer key. While this was initially welcomed by students and medical associations, concerns arose when the board clarified that the complete set of questions would not be published. On August 21, NBEMS had declared it would, for the first time, release the NEET PG answer key along with a response sheet and questions. However, the board later rolled back this decision, stating that only question IDs would be shared instead of the full set of questions. Doctors and aspirants argued that this format was “not transparent enough,” since providing only question IDs, answer keys, and responses against a master set would make the disclosure “non-verifiable” for most candidates. Over 2.42 lakh candidates took NEET PG this year. The exam was conducted online in a single shift across 301 cities and in 1052 test centres. NEET PG was held on August 3 this year.
