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New Delhi, June 3, 2025:
The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) is grappling with significant logistical challenges as it prepares to conduct the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2025 in a single shift, following a Supreme Court directive aimed at ensuring fairness and transparency.
Supreme Court Mandate Spurs Urgent Arrangements
The Supreme Court recently ruled that the NEET PG 2025 must be held in a single shift, rejecting NBEMS’s earlier plan for a two-shift examination. The court emphasized that conducting the test in two shifts could introduce arbitrariness, as it is impossible to guarantee identical difficulty levels across different question papers. The ruling came after widespread concerns from doctors and medical aspirants regarding the transparency and fairness of the normalization process used in previous years.
Race Against Time: 900 Additional Exam Centres Needed
To comply with the court’s order, NBEMS must arrange approximately 900 additional exam centres before the scheduled exam date of June 15, 2025. This expansion is crucial to accommodate all candidates in a single shift nationwide. NBEMS is reportedly in talks with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to help scale up the number of centres and ensure robust security measures, including signal jammers and advanced surveillance systems, to prevent malpractice.
A senior NBEMS official, speaking to the Education Times, confirmed, “The board is currently in discussions with TCS to expand the number of exam centres. Conducting NEET PG in a single shift will require additional centres, as well as upgraded security measures to prevent cheating.”
Security and Fairness at the Forefront
The move to a single-shift exam comes after last year’s dual-shift model, which was introduced in response to concerns about exam security following incidents during NEET UG 2024. However, the normalization formula used to equate scores across shifts was criticized as being inherently artificial and unable to guarantee absolute fairness.
Medical aspirants and faculty members have welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, calling it a “win for fairness and transparency.” However, the logistical demands have raised questions about the feasibility of conducting the exam as scheduled.
Possible Exam Postponement?
With the tight deadline and the need for hundreds of new exam centres, there is growing speculation that the NEET PG 2025 exam date may be postponed. The Supreme Court has allowed NBEMS to request an extension if it cannot arrange adequate centres in time. Nonetheless, students have been advised to continue their preparations as planned and not to rely on the possibility of a delay.
Disclaimer:
This article is based on information reported by Medical Dialogues as of June 3, 2025. The situation regarding NEET PG 2025 is evolving, and readers are advised to verify details with official NBEMS notifications and stay updated with the latest announcements.
