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The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the last-minute changes in the NEET-PG, 2024, pattern by the National Board of Education, saying they were “highly unusual” and students could have a “meltdown”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud took note of the submissions of senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija and advocate Tanvi Dubey, appearing for the students, and sought responses from the National Board of Education (NBE) and the Centre within a week on the applications, while listing them for hearing on September 27.
Initially, the senior counsel said the issue pertained to last-minute changes in the exam pattern, normalisation of marks, release of answer keys and question papers of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test for Post-Graduation (NEET-PG) held on August 11.
He said there were no rules or clarity and the exam was divided into two parts three days before the exam.
“There needs to be a standardised approach,” he said, adding that there are no rules determining how the tests should be conducted. “It all depends on a single information bulletin that can be changed according to the whims and fancies of the authorities.”
The NBE lawyer refuted the allegations, saying nothing new or unusual had been done.
“It is very unusual. Three days before the exams (exam pattern was changed)… students will have a crisis,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said and listed the petitions on September 27, keeping in view the upcoming guidance for admissions in postgraduate courses.
The petition, filed by Ishika Jain and others, was last heard on September 13.
Disclosure of answer keys, question papers of NEET-PG, 2024 and standardisation of marks is sought as the test has been divided into two parts to ensure transparency in the selection process.
NEET-PG is conducted for admissions in courses after MBBS and BDS.
The results, which were announced by the NBE on August 23, have sparked concern among students over unexpectedly low rankings.
After comparing scores with unofficial answer keys, many students raised suspicions about discrepancies in the grading process and urged the NBE to release official answer keys and create a complaint portal to address the issues.
Makhija had earlier said that the NBE did not publish either the question papers or the answer keys and without knowing the correct answers, candidates would not be able to assess their performance in a transparent manner.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 20, 2024 | 18:45 IS
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