NEET-PG transparency row: Supreme Court asks NBEMS to justify answer key policy

The Supreme Court has asked the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences to explain its policy of limiting disclosure of NEET-PG answer keys. The court questioned whether retaining question papers could compromise examination integrity and raised transparency concerns

New Delhi: Observing that it was not satisfied with the policy of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), the Supreme Court on Monday directed it to explain why it insisted on limited disclosure of answer keys for the NEET-PG exams.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe asked the NBEMS to file a written response on how allowing candidates to retain a copy of the question paper could compromise the integrity of the examination.

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“The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) shall file written submissions explaining why disclosure of questions may compromise the integrity of the exams for postgraduate NEET,” the bench said in its order.

The top court was hearing a batch of petitions raising various issues concerning the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)-Postgraduate (PG) exams, including the disclosure of answer keys as a matter of transparency.

During the hearing, counsel for the NBEMS submitted that the question bank for postgraduate examinations was very limited and, therefore, constituted a national asset.

One of the lawyers appearing in the matter told the court that previous years’ NEET-PG question papers were readily available for sale on Amazon and questioned the logic behind the NBEMS’ reluctance to disclose the questions.

At this juncture, Justice Narasimha asked: “What happens to transparency? You need much more explanation of what you are doing.

“We are not fully satisfied. You will have to explain to us exactly why you stand on a different footing from any other examination.”

Counsel for the NBEMS told the bench that the number of questions was very limited and that experts from across the country contributed to preparing the question bank.

“They don’t have copyright as it becomes a national asset. If we start disclosing the questions themselves, year after year, all our questions in the next five-six years will be quoted…

“This is a difficult paper… we don’t want that they have a key,” the lawyer said.