Supreme Court Turns Down NBE’s Request to Hold NEET PG 2025 in 2-Shifts

On May 30, the Supreme Court directed the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct the NEET-PG 2025 examination in a single shift to maintain fairness and prevent malpractice. The Court also instructed the NBE to expand the number of exam centres to facilitate holding the exam in one session across the country.

On May 30, the Supreme Court rejected the National Board of Examinations’ (NBE) proposal to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in two shifts. A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Kumar, and NV Anjaria emphasized that question papers in different shifts cannot be identical in difficulty, making the process arbitrary and unfair.

The Court instructed NBE to arrange adequate centres and ensure the exam is held in a single shift to uphold transparency and prevent malpractice. It questioned the fairness of using multiple papers, noting that the variance in difficulty could compromise merit-based selection. Petitioners argued that a two-shift format rewards chance over capability.

‘Make Arrangements for Holding Exam in One Shift’

In its May 30 order, the Supreme Court stated that conducting NEET PG in two shifts results in arbitrariness and compromises fairness, as the difficulty level of different question papers can never be exactly the same. The Court noted that while NEET PG may have been held in two shifts in the past due to specific circumstances, the examination authority should have made efforts to conduct it in a single shift going forward.

Senior Advocate Maninder Acharya, representing the National Board of Examinations (NBE), argued that logistical constraints, such as a limited number of online exam centres, infrastructure issues, and safety concerns, necessitate conducting exams in two shifts. She maintained that NBE ensures a balanced difficulty level across both shifts and applies a normalization process to eliminate any residual differences.

However, the Court remained unconvinced by these justifications. The bench highlighted that NEET UG, despite involving a much larger pool of candidates, is successfully held in a single shift, reinforcing the feasibility and importance of fairness through uniform testing conditions.

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