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Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking special stray round of counselling for NEET-PG

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea to direct the government and the Medical Counselling Committee to conduct a “special” stray round of counselling to fill up 1,456 vacant seats from NEET-PG 2021.

A Vacation Bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Aniruddha Bose said another round of counselling at this point of time would affect medical education and create confusion, which, in turn, would affect public health.

The Bench noted that the seats had remained vacant despite eight to nine rounds of counselling. They were hardly any takers for these seats, mainly for non-clinical courses. The counselling for NEET PG 2021 has now finally been closed. The 2021 academic year has already been delayed by 1.5 years.

Now, the counselling process for NEET-PG 2022 is about to commence. Another round of ‘special stray’ counselling for the 1,456 seats may coincide with the upcoming PG 2022 counselling process and create confusion. Hence, the court said, the government and authorities had taken a conscious decision to stop the counselling process for PG 2021.

“The Medical Counselling Committee and the Union of India have to adhere to the time schedule for completing the admission process and the current schedule of NEET PG 2021 which is already behind time schedule... not to have another stray round is in the interest of medical education. There cannot be any compromise on the quality of medical education as it affects public health,” the court observed in the order.

The court noted that out of 40,000 seats up for counselling, only 1,456 had remained vacant, most of which were non-clinical seats. The Supreme Court on Thursday, while reserving the case for orders, had indicated that ‘stray’ rounds of counselling to fill up the vacant seats cannot go on forever.

Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh, for the Health Ministry, had submitted that out of a total 1,456 vacant seats in NEET PG 2021, over 1,100 were allocated to private colleges while the government had 300 vacant seats.

Singh said seats were mostly for non-clinical courses. “These courses are mostly for those who prefer an academic life. They would not be medical doctors but would be qualified to teach subjects like anatomy, etc. Very difficult to get jobs. So students do not opt for these courses though there are seats available,” the law officer had explained.

Singh had also noted that 76.7% of the vacant seats belong to private institutions and students did not find it feasible to enroll for expensive non-clinical courses in these colleges which would ultimately not even guarantee them employment.

Advocate Gaurav Sharma, appearing for the National Medical Commission, had submitted that vacant seats in non-clinical courses was an annual phenomenon. The court, on Wednesday, on a petition filed by a group of doctors led by Astha Goel, led by senior advocate Rachna Srivastava, advocates Charu Mathur and Milind Kumar, had taken serious note of the 1,456 vacant seats. The petitioners had sought a “special stray” round of counselling to fill up these seats. The court, on Wednesday, had said that seats cannot be left vacant when the country, after a pandemic, cannot afford a dearth of doctors.

However, after hearing the government’s version that such vacant seats were an annual feature, the Bench had agreed on Thursday that there ought to be a limit to the counselling process for the PG 2021, which should not interfere with the NEET PG 2022 process.