New Delhi, May 31 -- The Supreme Court on Friday directed the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for postgraduate medical courses (NEET-PG) to be held in a single shift, observing the decision of the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to conduct the examination in two shifts "creates arbitrariness". The decision of the court came on multiple petitions filed by candidates appearing for NEET-PG 2025 who sought the examination, scheduled for June 15, be conducted in a single shift. The candidates claimed that in the two-shift model the question papers are set with different difficulty levels which is "discriminatory to some of the candidates". A bench headed by justice Vikram Nath said, "We direct the authorities to hold the examination in one shift and also ensure complete transparency is maintained and secured centres are identified." The bench, also comprising justices Sanjay Kumar and NV Anjaria, pulled up NBEMS for not identifying enough centres to hold the examination in one shift, saying, "Holding examination in two shifts is unacceptable." Senior advocate Maninder Acharya, appearing for the NBEMS, opposed the petitions, saying that holding the exam in a single shift will jeopardise the candidates who have registered for the examination as there is little time left to identify new centres. This year 242,678 candidates have registered for NEET-PG, and finding "secured" centres with the requisite infrastructure and security arrangements to accommodate these candidates will be a huge challenge, Acharya said. Addressing the concerns expressed by NBEMS, the court said, "The exam is to be held all over the country. We are not ready to accept that in the entire country, considering the technological advancement we have achieved, the examination body cannot find enough examination centres." The court ordered NBEMS to identify new examination centres to hold the exam in one shift. "There are still two weeks for identifying examination centres and holding the exam in one shift. Burn the midnight oil and find the centres," it said....