Supreme Court To Hear Doctors’ Plea Against Two-Shift NEET PG 2025 Format

The Supreme Court is set to hear a petition on Monday filed by the United Doctors Front (UDF), which opposes the National Board of Examinations’ (NBE) decision to conduct the NEET PG 2025 examination in two shifts.

The plea urges the court to direct that authorities hold the exam in a single, uniform session across the country to ensure fairness and equality among candidates.

Bench To Consider Constitutional Implications

According to the causelist on the Supreme Court’s official website, a bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan will take up the matter on 5 May.

Advocate Satyam Singh Rajput filed the petition on behalf of the petitioners.

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In its submission, the UDF argues that administering the examination in two separate shifts using different question papers leads to unavoidable disparities in difficulty levels.

This, the petition contends, violates Article 14 (equality before law) and Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Indian Constitution, which together guarantee a fair and equal opportunity to all candidates.

Criticism Of The Normalisation Process

Furthermore, the plea criticises the statistical normalisation method used by the NBE to account for differences in exam difficulty between shifts.

The UDF claims this process is opaque, lacks public consultation, and has not undergone expert scrutiny.

It also points out that the normalisation formula is based on the ‘flawed assumption’ that the difficulty levels and candidates’ abilities remain consistent across both sessions.

The petitioners urge the Supreme Court to conduct NEET PG 2025 in a single session and request an interim stay on the exam scheduled for 15 June.

Context: Previous Year’s Controversy

This is not the first time the NEET PG format has drawn legal scrutiny. In 2024, several petitions were filed challenging the same two-shift structure.

Candidates raised serious concerns over the lack of transparency, specifically criticising the NBE for not disclosing question papers, answer keys, or individual response sheets.

They also questioned the rationale behind the revised tie-breaker rules and the statistical normalisation process.

What Lies Ahead

As the top court prepares to deliberate on the matter, its decision could significantly shape the future conduct of postgraduate medical entrance exams and potentially set a precedent for uniformity and transparency in national-level competitive tests.