Hold NEET PG 2025 in single shift, orders Supreme Court, cites ‘arbitrariness’ of two-shift scheme

In a major turn of events, the Supreme Court has ordered conduct of the National Eligibility Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2025 in a single shift, as per a Live Law report. The top court was hearing a plea against the National Board of Examinations (NBE) decision to hold NEET PG exam in two shifts. NEET PG 2025 is scheduled for June 15 for admission to MD, MS, PG Diploma courses.

A bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath reportedly directed the exam authorities to make arrangements for holding the NEET PG exam 2025 in one shift and to ensure that complete transparency is maintained. Justices Sanjay Kumar and N V Anjaria said holding the PG medical entrance exam in two shifts creates "arbitrariness", as per the Live Law report.

"Any two question papers can never be said to be having an identical level of difficulty or ease," the top court was quoted as saying in its order.

Recently, SC sought response from the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), National Medical Commission (NMC), and the Union ministry of health regarding the decision to conduct the NEET PG 2025 exam in two shifts.

The apex court issued a notice on a writ petition filed by seven petitioners — Aditi, Atashi Das, Ravi, Joel Joseph Issac, Tayyab Chaudhary, Amit Singh, And Mrinal Jaiswal — who urged to direct NBEMS to hold a single-shift exam to ensure “fair, just, reasonable, and equitable" grounds of competition for all the PG aspirants.

Why aspirants were opposing NEET PG in two shifts?

Several medical associations and postgraduate medical aspirants had been writing to the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holding of exam in a single shift, citing the inconsistencies and potential biases in using the normalisation method for a national-level entrance exam.

In April, NBEMS explained the NEET PG normalisation method, amid demands of a single shift exam. The raw score obtained by the candidates will neither be “reported or disclosed” nor will it be used for ranking or qualifying purposes, as per NBE.

NBE initially announced the decision to hold NEET PG as a computer-based test in two shifts – first session from 9 AM to 12:30 PM and the second shift from 3:30 PM to 7 PM – even when the aspirants called it a ‘flawed decision’, recalling last year’s ‘mess’.