‘Students will have meltdown’: Supreme Court questions last-minute change NEET-PG exam pattern

“They are saying you have not framed regulations, everything goes by the brochure and three days before the exam, the entire pattern of the exam is changed. How can you do all this?,” the CJI asked.

The CBI counsel responded that they “haven’t done anything new or unusual”, but the bench did not agree.

The court sought responses from the NBEMS and the Centre within a week on the pleas. It listed the hearing on September 27, keeping in mind the upcoming counselling for admissions to postgraduate courses.

The bench took note of the submissions of Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija and Advocate Tanvi Dubey on behalf of the students.

The Senior Advocate said the issue pertained to last-minute changes in the examination pattern, normalisation of marks, disclosure of answer keys, and the question papers of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Post-Graduation (NEET-PG), held on August 11.

“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 could be modified at the whims and fancies of the authorities.”

NEET-PG is conducted for admissions in courses after MBBS and BDS. The results, which were announced by the NBE on August 23, have led to concerns among students over unexpectedly low rankings.

This year, the exam was conducted in two shifts instead of the single-shift format. With the new system in place, NBE adopted the normalisation process.

According to NBEMS, it “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 results for NEET-PG 2024”.

The plea, filed by Ishika Jain and others, seeks the disclosure of answer keys, question papers of NEET-PG, 2024, and standardisation of marks as the test was split into two parts for ensuring transparency in the selection process.

After comparing the scores with unofficial answer keys, many students raised suspicion about discrepancies in the ranking process and urged the NBEMS to release official answer keys and set up a grievance portal to address the issues.

Makhija had earlier said the NBE did not release either the question papers or the answer keys and, without knowing the correct answers, the candidates would not be able to assess their performances in a transparent way. PTI inputs