Yesterday, Friday, November 7, the Supreme Court instructed the National Board of Examinations (NBE) to make public its policy on the publication of answer keys for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET-PG) exams.
A panel of Justices PS Narasimha and Vipul Pancholi gave the directive during a hearing on a series of petitions raising concerns about NEET-PG's transparency. The court directed the NBE counsel to write an affidavit outlining the board's official position on whether the answer keys will be released.
The petitions before the Supreme Court seek greater transparency in the NEET-PG evaluation process, including the publication of answer keys, raw scores, and normalisation procedures.
Petitioners contend that the lack of these details has caused concerns among candidates about the fairness and authenticity of the results.
On September 26, another bench, consisting of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan, had already issued notices to the Centre and the NBE in connection with identical petitions. The prior hearing sought steps to improve transparency and accountability in the postgraduate medical admissions system.
During Friday's hearing, counsel for the NBE contended that the petitions were being pushed by coaching institutes seeking access to the answer keys for commercial gain.
The counsel expressed concern that disclosing the answer keys could "compromise the quality and confidentiality" of the examination process.
The NBE claims that the NEET-PG, as a high-stakes national-level exam, requires strict confidentiality to prevent abuse and protect the testing system's integrity.
The Supreme Court bench, however, said that the NBE's position must be explicitly defined in writing. It asked the Board to file an affidavit stating if such information will be shared with candidates and, if not, why.
The court's direction expands on its April 29 judgment, which emphasised the importance of transparency by ordering the release of raw scores, answer keys, and the normalisation formula used in examinations.
