New Delhi, October 15: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre and medical examination authorities to a plea demanding that NEET-PG 2026 candidates receive their actual question papers, complete answer options and recorded responses in a format that allows them to independently verify their scores and challenge alleged errors.
A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe issued notice to the Union government, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) and the National Medical Commission (NMC). It also tagged the petition with pending cases concerning the postgraduate medical entrance examination.
The Democratic Medical Association and a group of NEET-PG aspirants have challenged an October 1 NBEMS notice titled “Scorecard and Answer Key of NEET-PG 2026”, which allows candidates to access question-wise evaluation details through their individual applicant logins.
The examination took place on August 30, and NBEMS declared the results on September 24. After the results, candidates sought the actual question paper, official answer key and recorded responses to check how the authorities calculated their scores.
According to the petition, the existing system displays Question IDs, response status, numerical identifiers for correct answers, candidates’ selected options and marks awarded. However, it does not reproduce the actual questions or the complete text of the answer options in their original examination sequence.
The petitioners argue that NBEMS shuffles questions and options separately for individual candidates, making it difficult to establish whether the system has correctly matched each question, answer and recorded response to the candidate’s examination record.
They contend that numerical identifiers alone cannot establish what a question asked or what the corresponding options contained. While candidates can reconcile their marks arithmetically, the current disclosure format does not allow them to independently verify the substantive answer key or identify possible mapping errors, the plea states.
The petitioners also argue that access to the complete questions and options is necessary to challenge ambiguous questions, identify instances where multiple answers may be correct and contest answers officially marked as correct.
They have asked the court to direct NBEMS to provide each candidate with a question paper and response sheet mapped to their examination, reproducing questions in the order presented, all options, recorded responses, correct answers and marks awarded. They have also sought permanent, downloadable electronic copies of examination records and a reasonable, time-bound process for submitting objections question by question.
The plea proposes review by a subject-expert committee, followed by corrections to scores and ranks wherever errors are established. It also seeks guidelines or standard operating procedures to ensure post-examination transparency in future postgraduate medical entrance tests, referring to earlier proceedings concerning NEET-PG transparency and verifiability.
The matter is likely to be listed next on October 26. Senior advocate Sidharth Suri, assisted by advocate Satyam Singh Rajput, appeared for the petitioners.
