Supreme Court Intervenes in NEET PG 2025: NBEMS Gets Two Weeks to Address Transparency Row

The Supreme Court has directed the NBEMS to file a detailed response within two weeks concerning the lack of transparency in the NEET PG 2025 examination. This delay has put the MCC's All India Quota counselling schedule on hold, impacting thousands of medical aspirants.

The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) 2025 is currently at the centre of a significant legal battle. The Supreme Court of India, during its hearing on September 26, 2025, addressed a plea filed by medical aspirants demanding greater transparency from the examination authority, the National Board of Examination for Medical Sciences (NBEMS). The court has granted a deadline of two weeks to the NBEMS to file a comprehensive, detailed response to the allegations raised by the petitioners.

Key Issues Challenged by Aspirants

The primary concern of the petitioners revolves around the lack of clarity in the post-exam processes, which prevents candidates from independently verifying their scores in a crucial national-level examination.

• Demand for Question Paper and Answer Key: The core of the petition is the demand for NBEMS to release the individual question paper, the correct official answer key, and the candidates' own response sheets. Aspirants argue that without this full disclosure, it is impossible to identify or challenge discrepancies in the evaluation process.
• Opacity in Disclosure: The controversy escalated after NBEMS released a corrective notice regarding the answer key disclosure. Due to the shuffling of questions and options for different candidates, NBEMS provided only Question ID numbers from a master set, which petitioners claim is opaque and unintelligible for meaningful verification against their individual papers. They cite national exams like JEE and CLAT as examples where full disclosure is standard practice.
• Alleged Score Discrepancies: The petition stems from claims of score variations and discrepancies reported by several candidates, leading to doubts about the fairness of the overall assessment method.

The Court’s Observation and Next Steps

The Supreme Court bench, while taking the transparency issue seriously, made a pointed observation regarding the scale of the complaint:

• Question on Participation: The bench questioned why only a handful of students (reportedly around 14 to 20 petitioners) have approached the apex court out of the over 2 lakh candidates who appeared for the exam. This query puts the onus on the petitioners to demonstrate the widespread nature of the grievance.
• NBEMS Deadline: The National Board of Examination for Medical Sciences has been formally directed to submit a detailed counter-affidavit or response to the petitioners' claims within the two-week window. The next hearing is expected after this response is filed.

Status of AIQ Counselling Dates

The ongoing legal proceedings have had a direct and significant impact on the NEET PG 2025 Counselling schedule.

• MCC AIQ Counselling on Hold: The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), which manages the 50% All India Quota (AIQ) seats, is currently awaiting the outcome of the Supreme Court's deliberations and any subsequent orders before it can officially release the counselling schedule. Consequently, the crucial dates for registration, choice filling, and seat allotment remain unannounced.
• State-Level Counselling Status: While the national counselling is stalled, some states (such as Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu) have moved ahead and initiated their respective state-level NEET PG counselling processes.

Aspirants are advised to keep a close watch on the official MCC website for the release of the AIQ counselling schedule, which is expected to be announced soon after the Supreme Court issues a conclusive order. For regular updates on this and other medical admission news, follow Only Education News.

For more details on postgraduate medical exams and admission processes, visit: Medical Exams List