The Supreme Court of India will hear the petition filed by the United Doctors' Front (UDF) challenging the two-shift format of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025 examination on Monday, May 26, 2025. The update was confirmed by Advocate Satyam Singh, who is representing the UDF in the apex court.
The UDF petition, filed earlier this month, raises serious concerns over the fairness and transparency of conducting the postgraduate medical entrance test in multiple shifts.
The petition argues that holding NEET-PG in two different shifts creates scope for discrepancies in the level of difficulty of question papers and impacts the integrity of the normalisation process, thereby violating Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 (right to fair opportunity) of the Constitution.
The NEET-PG 2025 exam is scheduled to be held on June 15, to be conducted in two shifts due to logistical constraints and the large number of applicants.
While the National Board of Examinations (NBE) and the National Medical Commission (NMC) have defended the decision as being in line with standard practices adopted in other large-scale exams, many medical aspirants and experts have voiced concern over the lack of clarity on the normalisation method that will be used to ensure fairness.
The petition also highlights the psychological pressure this format puts on candidates, who fear that their future may be determined not just by performance but by the luck of the draw, based on which shift they are assigned.
Thousands of students have taken to social media, raising their voices against the two-shift model. A signature campaign demanding a single-shift exam has already gathered over 6,000 signatures from medical aspirants across the country. Hashtags like #ScrapTwoShiftNEETPG and #SingleShiftNEETPG have been trending on social media as part of a larger digital protest.
Earlier, the apex court had issued notices to the NBE, NMC, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), seeking their responses on the issue. However, a final decision has been pending.
With just over three weeks remaining for the exam, the upcoming hearing is being closely watched by the medical community.
