NEET-PG 2021: SC rejects plea seeking special round of counselling to fill vacant 1,456 seats

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to contest for the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of All India Quota (AIQ). The vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose said that the quality of medical education cannot be compromised which affects public health.

The Court also said that granting relief now may affect medical education and health. The court on Thursday observed that eight rounds of counselling had happened before the seats remained vacant. The Court also noted that it is a three-year course and more than half the term has gone and a good amount of the seats are all non-clinical seats. It was remarked that there cannot be any compromise with education.

Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh, appearing for the Centre and Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) submitted that classes have already started in February and it will have a detrimental effect if someone will take classes after 6 to 8 months in these courses. The apex court had earlier expressed dismay over vacant seats.

SC reserves order on plea seeking to conduct special stray round for NEET PG 2021

ASG Singh submitted that the vacant seats were mostly non-clinical. He explained that innon-clinical seats one can be an educationist but cannot be a doctor. ASG submitted that when it comes to depositing the fees, none takes them up. The ASG said that out of 1,456 seats, 1,100 seats are in private institutions and 300 are in government colleges. He further submitted that in private colleges, fees are too high.

On Wednesday, the MCC in an affidavit stated that filing of 1,456 vacant seats for NEET 2021 will disrupt the whole process for the upcoming counselling session NEET-PG 2022. The response came in an affidavit filed on a plea seeking to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to contest for the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of All India Quota (AIQ).

The MCC apprised the top court that at present, the software that was being used for conducting online counselling 2021 has been closed and a refund of the security deposit for participation in PG counselling 2021 has also been initiated. The court was hearing a plea seeking to direct the Respondent MCC to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate in the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of the All India Quota (AIQ).

The petitioners were represented by advocate Milind Kumar Advocate. The Petitionersappeared in NEET-PG 2021-22 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 and was concluded on May 7 by Medical Counselling Committee post the All India Stray Vacancy Round. The petitioners were not able to secure a seat in any of the rounds. The petitioners claimed that they are aggrieved by the counselling process which was conducted by MCC in a manner that all the vacant seats were not a part of the stray vacancy round of the counselling.

They said that the cause of action for filing the present Writ Petition arose on May 11 when the petitioners received a reply to the RTI they had filed wherein it was stated that “at the time of online allotment process all medical/dental post-graduate seats were exhausted but due to non-joining, resignation, and non-reported some seats remained vacant.” However, official data was been provided, the petitioners said. Hence, the petitioner sought to direct Respondent MCC to provide the exact number of vacant seats after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of AIQ and to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate in the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of stray vacancy round of AIQ.