The Supreme Court on Thursday, October 15, issued notice on a petition asking that NEET-PG 2026 candidates be shown the actual questions, answer options and correct answers from their own exam papers. A bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe sought the Centre's response and tagged the case with other pending petitions on exam transparency. The matter is likely to come up again on October 26.
What the petition is about
The plea has been filed by the Democratic Medical Association along with a group of NEET-PG 2026 aspirants. It challenges an October 1 notice from the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), titled "Scorecard and Answer Key of NEET-PG 2026," which let candidates see a question-wise evaluation through their individual logins.
The problem, the petitioners say, is that this disclosure shows only Question IDs, numerical correct-answer IDs, the candidate's recorded responses and marks. It does not show the actual text of the questions or the wording of the options in the order each candidate saw them. Because NBEMS shuffles both the order of questions and the order of options for each candidate, the petitioners argue that numbers alone make it nearly impossible to check whether the answer key is correct or whether responses were mapped properly.
Candidates who asked NBEMS for the question paper and official answer key were told that the results were "factual and correct," the petition says, citing a point in the board's September 24 result notice.
What the petitioners want
- Quash the October 1 notice to the extent it limits disclosure to IDs and numbers.
- Give every candidate a personalised question paper and response sheet showing actual questions, options in their shuffled order, their responses, the correct answers and marks.
- Provide a permanent downloadable copy of this record in PDF, CSV or a similar format.
- Set up a time-bound window to raise objections, reviewed by a subject-expert committee.
- Correct scores and ranks wherever errors are proved.
- Frame guidelines for future postgraduate medical entrance exams.
| Key fact | Details |
|---|---|
| Exam | NEET-PG 2026 |
| Exam date | August 30, 2026 |
| Result declared | September 24, 2026 |
| Notice challenged | NBEMS notice of October 1, 2026 |
| Bench | Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe |
| Petitioners | Democratic Medical Association and NEET-PG aspirants |
| Likely next hearing | October 26, 2026 |
Why it matters for NEET-PG candidates
NEET-PG decides admission to MD, MS and PG diploma seats across the country, and a single mark can move a candidate hundreds of places in the rank list. Without seeing the actual questions, students say they cannot spot ambiguous questions, questions with more than one correct answer, or errors in the key. The petition also flags timing: if counselling moves ahead before any errors are fixed, seat allotments could be locked in on the basis of wrong scores.
The issue is not new. A similar plea was filed over disclosure for NEET-PG 2025, and transparency in national entrance tests has been a recurring theme in the courts since the paper leak controversies earlier this year.
What candidates should do now
For now, the NBEMS result and the October 1 disclosure remain in force, and the court has not stayed anything. Candidates should keep downloading and saving their scorecards and the question-wise data available on their login, follow official notices on natboard.edu.in and the counselling schedule, and not rely on social media rumours about cancellations or re-tests.
How shuffled papers make checking hard
In a computer-based test with shuffled papers, two candidates sitting side by side see the same pool of questions in different orders, and the four options under each question are also rearranged. So "option 2" for one student may be "option 4" for another. NBEMS maps every response back to a master key using internal IDs. If the mapping is correct, the system works well and also reduces copying. But if even one ID is mapped wrongly, candidates have no way to notice it unless they can see the actual question and options they marked, which is exactly what the petition is asking for.
What happens next
The Centre and the exam body will have to file their replies before the next hearing. If the court orders fuller disclosure, it could change how NBEMS and other testing agencies share answer keys for computer-based exams with shuffled papers.
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