SC pushes NEET PG to August 3, orders single-shift exam to restore fairness

In a major development for lakhs of medical aspirants, the Supreme Court on June 5 approved the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS)’s request to postpone NEET PG 2025 to August 3 and mandated it be held in a single shift — reversing last year’s controversial two-shift model.

Originally scheduled for June 15 in two sessions, the postgraduate medical entrance exam will now take place nearly seven weeks later. The court’s directive, first issued on May 30, allowed NBE the flexibility to seek a deferral, which was granted today after the board cited the massive logistical scale of the test — involving over 1,000 exam centers across 250 cities and the deployment of nearly 60,000 personnel.

The court's decision comes amid mounting pressure from aspirants who flagged transparency and fairness concerns following last year’s twin-shift exam. Petitioners argued that variation in difficulty between shifts created uneven ground for test-takers, despite a normalization process. They have demanded release of answer keys, raw scores, response sheets, and both pre- and post-normalized results to ensure fairness — measures currently not part of standard procedure.

In 2024, NEET PG was, for the first time, conducted in two shifts. Random allocation of candidates to sessions and percentile-based normalization aimed to maintain parity, but critics argued the process lacked adequate transparency. Aspirants had even sought a halt on counseling until their grievances were addressed.

The court’s latest intervention not only delays the exam but also reasserts the need for a uniform and transparent evaluation process — a move welcomed by many in the medical community. All eyes are now on the NBEMS to ensure smooth execution of the rescheduled exam and restoration of candidate confidence.