New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred the hearing on a petition challenging the lack of transparency in the conduct of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-PG 2024.

A Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan could not take up the matter for hearing, due to paucity of time.

As per the computerised case status reflected on the website of the apex court, the matter is tentatively listed for hearing on December 10.

In their plea filed before the apex court, NEET-PG aspirants claimed that the introduction of two shifts, normalisation method, and change in the tie-breaker criterion just three days before the examination, affected the students adversely.

The petitioners contended that the NEET-PG information bulletin could be amended at the whims and fancy of the authorities and no rules or regulations existed governing the conduct of examinations. It challenged the National Board of Examinations (NBE) decision to not disclose question papers, answer keys, or response sheets of candidates for the exam this year.

The plea said that there was a clear lack of transparency in the conduct of the examination since none of the documents allowed students to check their performance, adding that neither the question paper, nor the response sheet filled in by candidates, or an answer key was supplied to the students, and merely a scorecard had been provided.

The petition, filed by advocate Parul Shukla, highlighted that, unlike previous years where the candidate used to receive their total score along with the number of correctly attempted questions and the number of incorrectly attempted questions, the results released on August 23 this year did not provide their total score.

“The method/manner in which examination under the NEET PG 2024 is conducted by the respondents (authorities) is manifestly arbitrary and against the principles of transparency and fairness in state action as enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution of India,” it added.

The plea said that NEET-PG had never been held in two shifts before and had always remained a single-shift and single-day examination to ensure a uniform examination standard and fairness of the national test.

It highlighted a “serious patent defect in the conduct of the examination”, requiring redressal in order to achieve a clean, transparent and effective system of examination which gives the best candidates.

“The NEET-PG is a multidisciplinary exam where one’s rank also determines their ability to opt for the course and field of their choice. Any slight variation in marks would bar several candidates from specialising in their field of interest,” it added. The petitioners also moved an application seeking suspension of the ongoing NEET-PG counselling for admissions.