CourtsSupreme Court
'What happens to transparency?' Supreme Court asks NBEMS why NEET-PG questions stay secret
Justice PS Narasimha's bench told the exam body to explain in writing why releasing the postgraduate medical entrance questions after the test would harm the exam.
Key points
- The Supreme Court asked NBEMS to file written submissions on keeping NEET-PG questions undisclosed.
- Doctors' groups want each candidate's OMR sheet, question paper and answer key online after the exam.
- NBEMS called its small question bank a national asset that would be used up by disclosure.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to explain why the questions in the postgraduate medical entrance test, NEET-PG, should not be made public once the exam is over.
A bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe was hearing a writ petition by the Democratic Medical Association, which wants NBEMS to put each candidate’s OMR answer sheet, the question paper and the answer key in their login account right after the exam. Notice in the petition was issued on 15 October. It is being heard with older petitions by the Federation of All India Medical Association and the United Doctors Front that challenge the way the National Testing Agency runs entrance exams.
For the petitioners, senior counsel said NBEMS releases the master set and its answers, but for the questions used to build the other shuffled sets it gives candidates only question IDs.
‘A national asset’
Counsel for NBEMS said the bank of postgraduate questions is small and should be treated as a national asset. Candidates get differently shuffled papers, she said, and the board publishes question IDs, the status of each answer and the correct answers, but not the questions themselves. “What we are disclosing now on the portal is not the master question paper,” she told the bench.
She argued that releasing the questions every year would let them be quoted and reused, that the bank is built by experts from across the country, and that many countries and AIIMS follow the same practice of not disclosing questions. Another lawyer for the petitioners pointed out that past NEET-PG papers had been sold on Amazon, and asked what secrecy was achieving.
“What happens to transparency?” Justice Narasimha asked. He said foreign practice was no model for India and wanted NBEMS to set out why its position differs from exams that do release their questions.
The court adjourned the case and directed NBEMS to file written submissions on why disclosing the questions might compromise the integrity of the exam. No date has been given for the next hearing.