Emphasizing the need for transparency, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it will examine whether releasing answer keys for the NEET-PG examination could affect the fairness and confidentiality of the test. However, the Court clarified that it will not entertain individual complaints alleging discrepancies in this year’s exam.

The matter was heard by a Bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Vipul M Pancholi, which was dealing with multiple petitions seeking greater transparency in NEET-PG, including public release of answer keys.

At the start of the hearing, the Bench questioned how these petitions came before them when a previous Bench comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice KV Viswanathan had already issued notice on similar pleas on September 26, specifically asking for publication of the answer keys and raising concerns about irregularities.

Counsel appearing for the National Board of Examinations (NBE) reiterated that candidates are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement which prevents release of the answer keys. Justice Narasimha then asked whether NEET-PG could adopt a model similar to UPSC, which recently started sharing provisional answer keys after its preliminary examination.

The NBE counsel argued that coaching institutes are driving these petitions so they can access question banks, which would dilute the quality and confidentiality of the exam. Initially, it was claimed that the policy is publicly available, but later it was stated that the policy is not written down and is instead followed as a longstanding convention.

The Court has now directed the NBE to clarify its position in writing and file an affidavit explaining its policy on disclosure of answer keys.

Regarding other petitions alleging irregularities in the conduct of the exam, the Bench stated that the Court will not adjudicate individual grievance-based allegations.

Earlier, in related orders this year, the Supreme Court has focused on increasing transparency in national-level exams — including directing publication of raw scores, answer keys, and normalization methods — and has also mandated that NEET-PG 2025 be conducted in a single shift.

Case Title: MEGHRAJ ROY v. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences
*W.P.(C) No. 851/2025 | Diary No. 48426/2025