NEET PG 2021: No special counselling round for 1456 vacant seats, SC dismisses plea

NEET PG Counselling 2021: The Supreme Court on Friday, June 10 dismissed the plea seeking a Special Stray Round of counseling for NEET-PG 2021, to allow the candidates to participate for over 1400 vacant seats of AIQ. The Apex court announced that there will be no special counseling on 1456 seats in the NEET PG 2021. A bench of Justices led by M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said, "There cannot be any compromise with the quality of medical education which will affect public health."

Supreme Court dismisses plea for Special Stray Round Of Counselling

Notably, the Apex Court supported the decision of the government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to allow special stray rounds calling it a decision that will be in the interest of medical education and public health.

"When a conscious decision has been taken by the UOI and MCC for not conducting any special stray rounds of counselling, it cannot be considered arbitrary," the bench said.

The petition was submitted to the Court by the doctors who took part in the NEET PG 2021 and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of All India Quota (AIQ) Counselling and State Quota Counselling which was followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds. The order was reserved by the Top Court on Thursday. This came after the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) informed the court that it has concluded four rounds of online counselling for NEET-PG-2021 and it cannot fill 1,456 seats by conducting a special stray round of counselling as the software stands closed.

A vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose on Wednesday was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a special stray round of counselling to fill the 1456 seats which have remained vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling in All India Quota. During the hearing, the bench said, “Even if there is a single vacant seat it should not have gone unfilled. It's the duty of the Medical Council to see that these seats do not remain vacant. After every round of counselling, this is the same problem. Why cannot the process be streamlined? What do we get by leaving the seats vacant when we are in need of doctors? This will not only create problems for the aspirants but would also encourage corruption”.  

“Do you even know the stress level of the students and their parents? Why during the midst of the counselling, you have been adding the seats. There is already a judgement of this court in this regard. There must be a cut-off date for the number of seats and how many admissions will be given”, the bench said.

Image: Shutterstock/ Representative

With Inputs from PTI