The Supreme Court of India.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences has filed a plea in the Supreme Court, seeking permission to re-schedule the NEET PG 2025 on August 03, 2025.
It said this is the earliest possible available date given by its technology partner i.e., M/s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, in accordance with the directions passed by this court on May 30, 2025.
The court had then directed the authorities to conduct the exam, earlier scheduled on June 15, in a single shift, instead of proposed two shifts.
The top court had held the examinations in two shifts would cause arbitrariness and the normalisation process can't be applied in a routine manner. It had also said the question papers in the two shifts can never be of the same difficulty level.
In an application, the NBE submitted that conducting the NEET PG 2025 examination in a single shift required identification of a substantially greater number of test centres, all of which can only be done so at the earliest on August 03, 2025.
Hence additional time till August 03, 2025 is required to ensure effective compliance with the direction of this court without compromising the security, fairness, or integrity of the examination process, it said.
The plea also stated prior to the direction of May 30, a total of 2,42,679 candidates were taking the examination at 448 test centres in 195 test cities in two shifts i.e. from 09:00 AM till 12:30PM and from 03:30 PM till 07:00 PM. However, now the examination will be conducted in one single shift and therefore half the candidates are to be located to other centres that are still to be identified.
"The application window will need to be reopened and candidates will need to be given a fresh opportunity to opt for the test city of their choice in accordance with the Information Bulletin. After the receipt of new test city choices from the candidates, the distribution of candidates at the test centres shall need to be done afresh. This process would also take some time," it pointed out.
The NBE also relied upon a communication by technology partner, M/s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, which proposed to conduct this exam on August 3, in a single shift format from 9 am to 12:30 pm, in view of infrastructural and logistical challenges.
The plea also pointed out, conducting a computer-based test requires test centres with appropriate infrastructure and the identification of such suitable test centres with appropriate infrastructure involved assessment of multiple technical and logistical parameters including availability of secure examination premises; adequate number of compatible computer systems; three-tier power backup systems; network infrastructure; security software and hardware; trained technical manpower; anti-cheating and surveillance measures; prior record of compliance with examination integrity protocols.
"Furthermore, each test centre requires dedicated deployment of trained technical manpower, invigilators, administrative staff, and independent observers. Mobilizing and training such personnel across hundreds of new locations in under two weeks—particularly during a period of ongoing national and academic activities—is a logistical impossibility," it said.
The operational readiness of each test centre must also be verified through mock drills, load tests, and system audits to prevent any last-minute failures, which cannot be safely achieved without some reasonable extension of time, it stated.