NEET PG 2025 aspirants await 2 major decisions; timeline of SC hearing, controversy

NEET PG 2025 aspirants are awaiting two major decisions this month — the Supreme Court’s verdict on the transparency plea and the Medical Counselling Committee’s (MCC) announcement for the postgraduate counselling. While the top court is set to hear the case on September 26 after multiple adjournments, there has been no update from the MCC so far.

The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) declared the NEET PG results on August 19 for admission to MD, MS, and PG diploma courses. Over a month later, aspirants are still waiting for the MCC NEET PG counselling dates 2025 for All India Quota (AIQ) seats.

Over the past few years, aspirants have been raising several issues related to the conduct of the NEET PG entrance exam, MCC counselling, seat blocking, and reservation issues.

After months of protests against the double-shift and normalisation method, the top court directed the board to withdraw the circular and conduct the exam in traditional one-shift format. It had also issued a total of ten major directives. However, the NBE did not clarify the changes, except for its decision to hold the exam in single-shift.

NEET PG Controversy: Timeline

Take a look at how the NEET PG 2025, single-largest postgraduate medical entrance exam, was conducted for 2.42 lakh candidates, controversies that followed, and the SC hearing updates.

NEET PG exam date 2025

August 3 - The NBEMS originally scheduled the exam for June 15. However, after the legal challenges, the Supreme Court approved the board’s proposal to hold the exam on August 3 in a single shift. The NEET PG exam date was postponed to increase the exam centres to accommodate over 2 lakh students in a single shift.

NEET PG result 2025

August 19 - The NBE declared the results for NEET PG exam on the official website, natboard.edu.in, for 2.42 lakh students.

NEET PG answer key

August 21 - Two days after the NEET PG result publication, the board announced its decision to display the NEET PG answer key. A corrective circular was issued immediately following the initial announcement clarifying that the board will issue “only the question IDs”, instead of the full set of questions.

Aspirants oppose NBEMS

August 21 to 29 - NEET PG aspirants strongly opposed the “corrective circular” and demanded full questions as many allegedly a wide gap of 50-200 marks in the results.

NEET PG aspirants move Supreme Court

August - Candidates who appeared in the exam and the United Doctors’ Front (UDF) approached the Supreme Court seeking transparency in the NEET PG exam and demanded answer keys with full questions.

NEET PG question IDs

August 29 - The NEET PG answer key 2025 was published for the first time.

Supreme Court NEET PG hearing

September 2 - The top court bench, which took up the matter earlier this month, referred the NEET PG transparency case to Justice Pardiwala, as a previous order related to transparency was passed by him.

Request for urgent hearing

September 4 - Informing the court that the MCC NEET PG counselling is tentatively scheduled to begin on or after September 5, the aspirants filed an “urgency application” in the top court. Following this, the hearing was posted on September 4. The bench asked petitioners if they filed the pleas “because they scored less marks?” The hearing was adjourned for the next week.

September 12 - The Supreme Court postponed the NEET PG hearing by two weeks. MCC NEET PG schedule was

September 23 - The top court once again postponed the hearing to September 26.

Meanwhile, states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala have begun the NEET PG counselling 2025 for the remaining state quota seats.