NEET PG 2021 admissions: Supreme Court dismisses petition seeking special stray round of counselling

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 10

More than 1,450 PG medical seats shall remain vacant as the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a special stray round of counselling to enable candidates to vie for vacant seats available after the conduct of a stray vacant round of All India Quota (AIQ).

A Bench led by Justice MR Shah said it’s not possible to hold a special stray round of counselling for NEET PG 2021 admissions at this stage as it would affect medical education and public health.

Most of the seats involved were of non-clinical branch, noted the Bench, which had reserved its order on the issue on Thursday after hearing arguments from petitioner doctors, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and the Centre.

The order came on a petition filed by doctors who appeared in NEET-PG 2021 and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of AIQ Counselling and State Quota Counselling followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds.

The petitioner doctors contended that occupying the remaining seats on the basis of merit would be in the interest of both the college as well as candidates. Colleges can avoid heavy losses against vacant seats, while deserving candidates can be accommodated against such seats, if an additional round of counselling was conducted, they argued.

As 1,456 seats remained vacant, the Supreme Court had on Wednesday pulled up the MCC for not filling seats in NEET-PG admissions, saying it would not only put aspirants into difficulty but also cause dearth of qualified doctors in the country.

On behalf of the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh had told the Bench that classes had already started in February and now holding classes for another six to eight months is not feasible. NEET 2022 teaching will also be compromised if further rounds of counselling were conducted, he said.

The Directorate General of Health Services had contended that it had concluded four rounds of online counselling for NEET-PG-21 and it could not fill 1,456 seats by conducting a special stray round of counselling as the software stood closed.

The counselling process for two academic sessions, ie, 2021 and 2022, can’t run concurrently, the MCC submitted in an affidavit. The MCC and Centre have already started the preparation of NEET PG 2022 counselling and it is likely to be conducted in July, the affidavit submitted.

When the authorities got to know in May that seats were vacant, they should have conducted a mop-up round of counselling, the top court had said on Wednesday even as it expressed reservation over addition of seats in the midst of counselling process, for it increased chances of corruption.