Hyderabad: In a crucial decision for lakhs of medical aspirants, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to conduct NEET-PG 2025 in a single shift, quashing the board’s plan for two separate sessions.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court—comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Kumar, and N.V. Anjaria—has directed the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to reconsider its plan to conduct the postgraduate entrance exam in two shifts.
The order came while hearing a petition filed by a group of doctors who argued that using two different question papers would compromise the exam’s fairness. They maintained that no matter how meticulously crafted, two separate question papers can’t be perfectly equal in difficulty—opening the door to an uneven playing field that might give some candidates an unintended advantage.
NBEMS, on its part, cited the logistical crunch of managing nearly 2.5 lakh aspirants and the challenge of securing enough compliant test centres to justify splitting the exam into two shifts.
But the bench wasn’t convinced. It dismissed the board’s explanation, noting that there was still sufficient time to make the necessary arrangements to conduct the exam fairly in one go. “There is still enough time for the examining body to identify a sufficient number of secure centres,” the court remarked, noting that two weeks remained before the scheduled exam date.
NEET-PG 2025 is set to be conducted on June 15. With this ruling, all candidates will now write the exam at the same time, ensuring a uniform testing environment across the country.
