On Friday, May 30, 2025, the Supreme Court directed the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to conduct the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025 examination in a single shift, rejecting the planned two-shift format, reported LiveLaw.
The bench, comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Kumar, and NK Anjaria, said that the two-shift format creates arbitrariness and fails to ensure a level playing field due to variations in question difficulty.
"Holding the exam in two shifts leads to arbitrariness and cannot give a level playing field. The question papers in the two shifts can never be of the same difficulty level. Last year it may have been held in two shifts in the facts and circumstances of that stage. But the examining body ought to have considered making arrangements for holding the examination in one shift," the court said.
The counsel for NBE argued that limited testing centres and infrastructure constraints, such as Wi-Fi and secure computers, led to the decision to hold the exam in a two-shift format.
Senior Advocate Maninder Acharya, representing the NBE, cited other exams like the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) and Indian Institute of Technology - Joint Entrance Examinations (IIT-JEE), which employ multiple shifts, and claimed normalisation ensures fairness.
However, the court dismissed these arguments, noting that NEET-UG, with more candidates, is conducted in a single shift.
Justice Vikram Nath questioned the need for an online exam for a multiple-choice test, and stated that there "cannot be absolute equivalence between the papers of two shifts."
The court directed the NBE to identify secure centres to hold the exam in one shift by June 15, 2025, and to ensure full transparency in the process.
The NEET-PG 2025 exam is scheduled for June 15, and results are expected by July 15.
