The Supreme Court of India has scheduled a hearing on May 20 for a batch of petitions addressing transparency concerns in the NEET PG 2024 examination, including the contentious issue of marks normalisation.
The bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice AG Masih, initially observed that the petitions might have become infructuous since NEET PG 2024 admissions are complete, and sessions have already begun. However, the counsel for the petitioners argued that the matter goes beyond NEET PG 2024, highlighting broader issues like the normalisation of marks, correction of answer keys, and discrepancies in scores.
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The National Board of Education (NBE), which conducts NEET PG, has implemented a marks normalisation system to ensure fairness. This system accounts for variations in question difficulty across different exam dates. According to the NBE, this method is necessary because NEET PG is a super-speciality exam with limited high-difficulty questions.
However, petitioners argue that the normalisation process lacks transparency and has led to significant discrepancies in student scores. They claim that students did not receive essential documents, such as question papers, response sheets, or answer keys, which are necessary for verifying their performance. Instead, only scorecards were provided, leading to confusion and allegations of discrepancies.
The plea also highlights that the NEET PG 2024 exam format was altered just one month before the scheduled date. Originally designed as a single-session exam, it was converted into a two-session format with separate question papers for each session. Petitioners argue that this change violated NBE's guidelines and caused confusion among students.
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During an earlier hearing, CJI Chandrachud questioned the NBE's counsel about the last-minute changes, stating:
"It is very unusual! Three days before the examinations? Students will have a meltdown!"
The court had then issued a notice to the NBE, seeking its response.
The petitioners have raised serious objections against the new normalisation procedure, which they claim was arbitrarily introduced by the NBE. They argue that this system, based on a method used in AIIMS, is unsuitable for NEET PG.
"The normalisation procedure has completely altered the ranks that students expected to obtain... It has led to clumping of students at each decimal, which would not have happened in case of counting of actual marks," the plea states.
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The petition further contends that the new system has led to unfair ranking and has affected students' chances of securing their desired specialisations.
After considering the arguments, the Supreme Court has decided to hear the matter on May 20, alongside another petition challenging the marks normalisation system in NEET PG.
The outcome of this hearing could have a significant impact on future NEET PG examinations and the transparency of evaluation methods used by the NBE.
Case Details : ISHIKA JAIN AND ORS. Versus NATIONAL BOARD OF EXAMINATION AND ORS. W.P.(C) No. 583/2024
