SC declines plea for special round of NEET-PG 2021 counselling

The top court said the decision of the government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to allow special stray round is in the interest of medical education

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea for conducting a special stray round of counselling to fill up 1,456 vacant seats in post graduate medical courses for academic year 2021, saying the process of admission that too in medical education can't be endless or it may ultimately affect the standard and public health.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said the decision of the Union government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to hold another round for admission cannot be arbitrary as they have to adhere to time schedule.

"The decision of the Union government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to have special stray round of counselling is in the interest of medical education and public health. There cannot be any compromise with the merits and/or quality," the bench said.

The top court dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Dr Astha Goel and others, saying if one additional round of counselling is conducted now, it may affect the admission process for NEET-PG-2022, scheduled to begin in July after declaration of results on June 1.

It also pointed out even after eight to nine rounds of counselling, out of 40,000 seats, 14,56 seats have remained vacant, out of which approximately, more than 1100 seats are non-clinical seats, which every year remained vacant.

The bench also noted in case of 'Education Promotion Society for India and Anr Vs Union of India and Ors', (2019), the Supreme Court had said merely because the seats are lying vacant is not a ground to grant extension of time and grant further opportunity to fill up those seats.

The court also took note of the fact that the admission for NEET-PG 2021 was already behind the schedule due to third wave of Covid-19 pandemic and OBC reservation in All India Quota seats.

Further, after the last round of counselling on May 7, 2022, the entire software mechanism has been closed and the security deposit has been refunded to the eligible candidates, it added.

Around 40,000 seats, including non clinical, were available for NEET-PG examination. Initially, 92,000 doctors were eligible. However, subsequently, the percentage was lowered making another 25,000 candidates eligible. The examination was held on September 11, 2021. The result was declared on September 28, 2021. At the end of the four rounds of counselling, each for All India Quota and State Quotas (in all eight rounds of counselling) and thereafter one another round of counselling, still approximately 1456 seats remained vacant.