NEET-PG | We Will Run Out Of Questions In Few Years If Answer Sheets Are Published: NBE Tells Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has decided to comprehensively hear a batch of petitions raising concerns about the non-disclosure of answer sheets of candidates who take the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET-PG) and the overall transparency of the examination process.

The Bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, after being informed of the apprehensions in a hearing that only went on for a short while, said, "We will have to examine this matter."

The last time this matter was listed, no advocate appeared for the Union Government. In its Order, the Bench requested the presence of any of the Additional Solicitors General to assist this Court in the matter.

Senior Advocate Vibha Datta Makhija said that there is no standard operating procedure on how the examination is to be conducted. "Several states have not been able to continue with their counselling."

"Answer key was published or not?" Justice Misra asked Makhija. Senior Advocate Maninder Acharya, appearing alongside Advocates Mrinal Kumar Sharma and Shreya Garg for the National Board of Examination (NBE), interjected to reply to the Bench's question. "It has not been published. We had specially stated in our information bulletin that answer sheets will not be given."

The Board's reason for not publishing answer sheets, Maninder Acharya said, is that "these are super speciality exams at the post-graduation level and the questions are very limited." Justice Misra then asked, "Are these questions objective?" to which she replied in the affirmative. "Appropriate difficulty questions are so limited that if we start giving questions and answer sheets every year, within three years all our questions will go and then it will become very difficult for us," she contended.

The Information Bulletin for NEET-PG 2024 declares, "The contents of this exam are confidential, proprietary and are owned by National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS)... NBEMS shall not entertain any request for sharing any content of the examination including answer keys/answer sheets." It also holds that "there shall be no re-evaluation or rechecking or re-totaling of responses marked by the candidates. Requests or queries for re-evaluation/re-totaling shall not be entertained."

The petitioners contend that accessing their answer sheets is crucial to assess their performance transparently. Among the petitions before the Bench, one relates to the NEET-PG examination conducted this year, two other relate to those conducted in past years.

"Have you been able to access your answer sheets by filing an RTI?" Justice Mishra asked the petitioners. Maninder Acharya, answering the Bench's question, said, "There are no answer sheets that way. There are objective type questions and the checking is done by the computer." As proof of the transparency of the process, she added, "There is no human element involved."

For the petitioners, Makhija told the Bench there is a bar on asking for answer sheets. "There is a penal consequence."

"We will have to hear this matter," said Justice Pardiwala as he listed the matter for further hearing on a non-miscellaneous day.

Ayush Patel And Ors. v. National Board of Examination And Ors. [W.P.(C) 1355/2021]