New Delhi, Oct 1 — A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court by the Democratic Medical Association and a group of NEET-PG 2026 aspirant doctors, challenging the manner in which the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has disclosed the answer key and candidate responses for the postgraduate medical entrance examination.
The petition, filed through advocates Satyam Singh Rajput and Neema, seeks directions to NBEMS to provide candidates with the actual questions and options shown to them during the examination, along with their recorded responses, the final correct answers, and question-wise marks.
NEET-PG 2026 was conducted on August 30 as a nationwide computer-based examination, while its result was declared on September 24.
After the results were declared, several candidates sought access to the actual question paper, the official answer key, and their recorded responses to independently verify their scores.
The petitioners said that despite these grievances, NBEMS substantially disposed of the representations through standardised communications stating that the result was “factual and correct”, while in several cases referring candidates to Point No. 9 of the public notice issued on September 24.
The petitioners have challenged the October 1 notice issued by NBEMS titled “Scorecard and Answer Key of NEET-PG 2026”, under which candidates can access question-wise evaluation through their individual applicant login.
According to the petition, the disclosure provides the Question ID, response status, numerical correct-answer ID, the numerical option selected by the candidate, and the marks awarded for each question.
However, the petitioners contend that the mechanism does not provide the actual question corresponding to the Question ID or the complete text of the options in the same sequence in which they were displayed to the candidate during the examination.
“The candidate is consequently shown a coded numerical matrix, but is not able to correlate such identifiers with what he or she actually saw and answered during the examination,” the petition said.
The petition further stated that NBEMS adopts candidate-specific shuffling of both the sequence of questions and the order of options.
“Thus, merely informing a candidate that, against a particular Question ID, ‘Option 2’ was correct and ‘Option 3’ was selected does not enable the candidate to ascertain what the underlying question was, what Options 2 and 3 actually contained, or whether the correct question and option sequence have been accurately mapped to that candidate’s examination record,” it said.
The petitioners have argued that the existing disclosure may enable an arithmetical reconciliation of marks but does not permit independent verification of the substantive answer key or candidate-specific question-and-option mapping.
“In the absence of the actual question and corresponding option text, a candidate is also unable to meaningfully identify whether a question is ambiguous, whether more than one option is capable of being correct, whether the officially designated answer is erroneous, or whether any error has occurred in the candidate-specific mapping of the question, options or recorded response,” the petition said.
The petition seeks directions to NBEMS to make available, through the individual applicant login, a candidate-wise mapped question paper and response sheet reflecting the actual questions in the sequence presented to the candidate, complete options in the candidate-specific sequence, recorded response, corresponding correct answer, and marks awarded.
It also sought a downloadable, permanent electronic copy of the examination record and a reasonable, time-bound mechanism for candidates to raise question-wise objections after viewing the actual questions and options.
The petitioners have proposed that a duly constituted subject-expert committee consider such objections, with consequential correction of scores and ranks wherever an error is established.
The plea also refers to previous proceedings concerning transparency and verifiability in NEET-PG examinations, including petitions filed in earlier examination cycles.
The petitioners have further urged the Supreme Court to frame appropriate guidelines or standard operating procedures governing post-examination transparency in future postgraduate medical entrance examinations.