The Supreme Court has issued notice to the National Board of Examinations in a plea filed by doctors seeking release of the NEET-PG 2021, answer key and the question paper and also to provide for revaluation option in case of discrepancy.
A Supreme Court bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice BV Nagarathna observed that the reason behind not releasing the answer sheet and the question paper is to protect the sanctity of the exam.
It was further observed that if the key answers are uploaded there is a possibility that a debate may arise at a later stage regarding the correctness of the answers. The bench however issued a notice commenting that the bench needs to hear the National Board of Examination first on this issue before granting any relief or direction.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appearing on behalf of the petitioners submitted that except the NEET-PG is the only exam where answer sheet and question paper post examination are not shared. There has to be some transparency in the process to ensure that the method for revaluation is indeed fair.
Justice Chandrachud explained that ideally NEET-PG may have a limited question bank and the department is possibly refraining from such exercise so that the independent coaching centre does not take undue benefit of this.
The petition states that the challenge pertains to serious instances of discrepancies in their scores for NEET-PG 2021 and to bring notice of the Apex Court that grave and serious problem is faced by thousands of aspirants across the country due to arbitrary action on part of the National Board of Examination in not releasing the answer key and the question paper for NEET-PG.
Another issue raised by the petition doctors is that the NBE is not providing the candidates with an option to revaluate or recheck in case of discrepancy in their scores.
The Petition further seeks to declare clause 9.7 and 10.4 of the NEET-PG Information Bulletin, 2021 as unconstitutional, and to direct formation of a high-powered committee to examine the present situation.
The petition is filed by AOR Dr Charu Mathur.
Case Title: MANJUNATH B TADASAD Versus NATIONAL BOARD OF EXAMINATION