SC to hear petition seeking postponement of NEET-PG 2024 exam on Aug 9

The Supreme Court said on Thursday said that it will hear the petition tomorrow seeking to reschedule the NEET-PG 2024 due to the allocation of "highly inconvenient" exam centres and concerns about the normalisation of marks.

Advocate Anas Tanwir, who is appearing for the petitioners, has mentioned the plea before the bench led by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and sought an urgent listing of it.

CJI Chandrachud assured that the matter will be listed for hearing tomorrow. NEET-PG 2024 is scheduled to be held on August 11.

The candidates have approached the Supreme Court and preferred seeking directions to the respondents to reschedule the NEET-PG 2024 Examination on the ground that the petitioners and many similarly placed candidates have been allocated cities that are highly inconvenient for them to reach, further seeking details of the formula for normalisation of the four sets of question papers, and seeking clarity on ensuring that the normalisation formula is disclosed to the candidates, thereby eliminating any possibility of arbitrariness in the process.

The petitioners said that the allocation of test cities was made on July 31 and the specific centres are scheduled to be declared on August 8. The petitioner, while appreciating that the same has been done to curb any malpractice in the examinations, however, given such a short notice, it has become highly difficult for students to make arrangements for their travel to their specific cities.

The petitioners submitted that more than two lakh students are scheduled to appear in the examination.

The examination is scheduled to be held in 185 test cities, therefore resulting in the non-availability of train tickets as well as the hiking of airfares due to dynamic pricing, thereby making it almost impossible for a large number of students to reach their test centres, the petition said.

The petition further submitted that the respondent had announced the date of the examination will be on August 11 and that it would be conducted in two batches.

"The fact that the examinations will be conducted in two batches and that the formula for normalisation is unknown to the candidates thereby causing an apprehension to the petitioners herein. There is a likelihood that one batch of candidates may face a more difficult question paper than the other batch. Therefore, it is prayed that the formula for normalisation should be disclosed before the conduct of examinations thereby ruling out any fear of arbitrariness," the petitioner said.

The petition was filed by Anas Tanwir, an Advocate on Record (AOR).

Various students including Vishal Soren have urged the court to conduct the exam in a single batch to ensure a uniform and fair testing environment for all candidates.

The petitioners have urged the top court to rectify Examination Centre Allocation Issues and ensure that test centres are allocated more equitably and transparently at nearby places.