The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the National Board of Examination to hold the NEET-PG exam in a single shift on August 3, 2025.
The Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Augustine George Masih allowed the application filed by the Board for extension of time to conduct the NEET exam till August 3, 2025.
Earlier on May 30, the Apex Court had directed the NBE to hold the NEET-PG 2025 examination in a single shift instead of two shifts, on the initially scheduled date of June 15, 2025. The Bench had further allowed the Board to seek extension of time.
On June 3, NBE filed an application seeking extension of time.
The Bench today questioned the Board for seeking time till August 3.
The Counsel representing the NBE explained that the exam was initially proposed to be held in 450 centres with over 2.5 lakh candidates. Since the Court has directed the conducting of exam in one shift, the number of centres has to be doubled. The Board needed time to identify the centres and make necessary security arrangements, which was a time-consuming process. After that, the candidates need to be informed of the centres, so that they could attend the exam.
The Apex Court asked the Counsel why the Board needed two months for completion of the exercise.
The Counsel contended that even according to their technology partner TCS, August 3 was the nearest available date to conduct NEET.
Appearing for the Union government, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj said the decision to hold the exam on August 3 was taken after several rounds of high-level meetings.
When the Court asked why the exam could not be held in July, the ASG requested that time be granted till Monday to get back to the court after one more round of discussion.
The Bench rejected the request and said it would dispose of the application today itself, allowing NBE’s prayer.
The Apex Court recorded in its order that it was satisfied that NBE’s prayer was bona fide and allowed it to conduct the exam on August 3, 2025. No further time extension would be granted, it added.
The Board had earlier decided to postpone the NEET-PG exam, initially scheduled on June 15, following the Supreme Court’s direction to hold it in a single shift instead of double shifts.
On May 30, the top court of the country criticised the NBE decision to hold the exam in two shifts.
The Board submitted in its application that its technology partner TCS has said that the time period between May 30 and June 15 was insufficient to hold the exam in a single shift due to the requirement of a greater number of centres in more cities and an extensive hardware supply chain management.
The current booking of test centres was double the capacity, as the examination was planned at the centres in two shifts. More than 1000 centres would need to be booked and engaged. To execute a shift of 242679 candidates with buffer, would require infrastructure for 2.70 lakh candidates across the country, which would require a considerable amount of time.
Further, the application window would need to be reopened and candidates would 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 would be done afresh. This process would also take some time.
After the completion of the aforementioned process, candidates would be informed of their test city at least two weeks prior to the date of the examination, while the admit card would be issued at least four days before the said exam, enabling the candidates to make appropriate arrangements for travel.
The process further required additional manpower, ranging from invigilators, security staff and network admins. The hiring of a high volume of quality manpower, training, and preparation of the manpower and conducting multiple dry runs & mocks would also require considerable time, it added.
Noting that NEET PG was a high-stake exam, the NBE said all law enforcement agencies needed to join hands to tackle malpractices.
The Board further cited reasons like time required for arranging 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, operational readiness of each test centre, mock drills, load tests, and system audits, for conduct of the exam.