Supreme Court Permits Time Extension to NBE; NEET PG 2025 Exam to Be Held in Single Shift on August 3

On Friday, June 6, the Supreme Court permitted the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBE) to organise the NEET PG 2025 exam on August 3, 2025.

The application submitted by the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBE) for the extended time to administer the NEET PG 2025 exam has been permitted by the bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Augustine George Masih.

On May 30, 2025, when the Supreme Court announced its order and said the NEET PG 2025 exam would be organised in a single shift instead of two shifts, it also scheduled the exam for conducting the NEET PG 2025 examination on June 15, 2025. Simultaneously, the court permitted the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBE) to seek a time extension.

Then, on June 3, 2025, an application was submitted by the NBE seeking a time extension. The board said that they will need to increase the number of exam centres (doubled) where the exam will be conducted from 450 to 900, and accordingly, they will need to increase the security. The board also said, as per its technology partner, TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), August 3, 2025, is the nearest date possible to conduct the NEET PG 2025 exam.

The hearing raised the question for NBE of why extra time till August 3, 2025, is needed. In answer, NBE explained earlier that the exam was scheduled to be held for more than 2.5 lakh candidates across 450 centres. But since the court has now ordered that the examination will be held in only a single shift, the number of exam centres will need to be doubled. Therefore, the process will require time to select suitable centres for suitable security arrangements. Then, candidates will share the information of selected centres so that they can choose a suitable one for themselves. The board said it is a time-consuming process.

Still, the bench questioned the board: why is this much time of 2 months is needed for this process? Justice Mishra said, “You want time until August 3? Why so much time?” Further, Justice Masih said, “You haven’t started the process even. The order was passed on May 30. What have you done after that? This is delaying. Why do you need two months?”

Then, in answer to the counsel, the NBE showed the application sent by its technology partner, TCS, saying the NEET PG 2025 exam can only be scheduled for August 3, 2025. In this context, the Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, for the Union Government, further added that the decision to administer the exam on August 3, 2025, was taken after organising several high-level meetings on it.

But Justice Masih further asked, still, why the exam cannot take place in July and why only in August. ASG requested the court to give them time till Monday to come back after one more high-level discussion on this topic.

At this point, Justice Mishra said that the bench would decide on the application the same day and agreed to NBE’s request.

The bench said in its order that it was convinced the NBE’s request was genuine and allowed it to hold the NEET-PG exam on August 3, 2025. However, the court also made it clear that no more time extensions would be given.

Earlier, the NBE had postponed the NEET-PG exam, which was originally set for June 15, after the Supreme Court directed that the exam be held in a single shift instead of two. In its May 30 order, the court had criticised the NBE’s decision to conduct the exam in two shifts.

In the application, NBE said August 3, 2025, is the earliest date possible, as per its technology partner, TCS, to administer the exam in a single shift. Also, said the time period between May 30 and June 15, 2025, is not suitable and possible to administer the exam in a single shift, as the exam is now turned into a single shift from two shifts; hence, there is now a requirement for exam centres in a greater number of cities, and a great network of hardware chain management will be needed.

The application states, “The current booking of test centres is double the capacity, as the examination was planned at the centres in two shifts… 1000+ Centres shall need to be booked and engaged, which will require considerable time. The infrastructure needed to be engaged to execute a shift of 242679 candidates with Buffer would require infrastructure for 2.70 Lakh to be made available across the country, which will require a considerable amount of time.”

The application further states, “The hiring of a high volume of quality manpower, training, and preparation of such a high number of manpower, and conducting multiple dry runs and mocks with them would require considerable time.”

The application window will be opened again, and candidates will get a new chance to choose their preferred test city, as per the Information Bulletin. Once these new choices are received, the candidates will be reassigned to test centres, which will take some time.

After this process is completed, candidates will be told which city their exam will be held in at least two weeks before the exam date. The admit card, with details of their exact exam centre, will be given at least 4 days before the exam so they have enough time to plan travel and other arrangements.

Also, more staff will be needed for the exam, including invigilators, security personnel, network administrators, and others.

NBE also said that NEET PG is a very important exam, and preventing cheating is a big challenge. To handle this, help from all law enforcement agencies will be needed.

NBE explained that the delay is because a lot of time is needed to arrange secure exam centres, enough computers that work well, backup power systems, internet setup, security software and equipment, trained staff, anti-cheating tools, cameras for monitoring, testing each centre’s readiness, practice runs, system checks, and safety audits.