SC to hear plea seeking disclosure of NEET-PG question paper, answer keys

The Supreme Court on Friday is slated to resume hearing a petition challenging the refusal of the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to disclose question papers, answer keys, or response sheets of candidates of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance (NEET)-PG 2024 exam.

The NEET-PG exam was conducted by the NBE on 11 August and the results were announced on 23 August.

As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, will resume hearing the matter on 20 September.

Last week, the Bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Miara, agreed to examine the issues raised in the petition and asked the petitioner side to serve a copy of the plea on the NBE, apart from serving the standing counsel.

The plea said that there was a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of the examination since none of the documents allowed students to check their performance, adding that neither the question paper, nor the response sheet filled in by candidates, nor an answer key was supplied to the students, and merely a score card has been provided.

The petition, filed through advocate Parul Shukla, highlighted that unlike previous years where the candidate used to receive their total score along with the number of correctly attempted questions and the number of incorrectly attempted questions, the results released on 23 August did not provide the total score of the candidate.

"The method/manner in which examination under the NEET PG 2024 is conducted by the Respondents (authorities) is manifestly arbitrary and against the principles of transparency and fairness in state action as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India," it added.

The plea said that NEET-PG had never been held in two shifts before and had always remained a single-shift and single-day examination to ensure a uniform examination standard and fairness of the national exam.

It highlighted a "serious patent defect in the conduct of the examination", requiring redressal in order to achieve a clean, transparent and effective system of examination which gives the best candidates.

"The NEET-PG being a multidisciplinary exam where one’s rank also determines their ability to opt for the course and field of their choice, any slight variation in marks would bar several candidates from specialising in their field of interest," it added.

In August this year, the top court refused to entertain a plea seeking directions to reschedule the NEET-PG 2024 exam.

A bench headed by CJI Chandrachud remarked that the examination where two lakh students are going to appear cannot be halted at the instance of four petitioners. Dismissing the plea, the top court said: "We will not reschedule or pass any orders. There are 2 lakh students and close to 4 lakh parents who would weep if we touch this matter. At the behest of four-five petitioners, we cannot jeopardise the careers of two lakh students. We will not do it."

The petition had sought the postponement of the exam on the grounds that candidates have been allocated cities which are highly inconvenient for them to reach and the formula for normalisation is unknown to them.

It also sought details and disclosure of the formula for the normalisation of the four sets of question papers to eliminate any possibility of arbitrariness in the process.