SC dismisses pleas seeking special stray round for NEET-PG Counselling

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking special stray counselling round to fill the 1,456 seats in NEET-PG-21. The seats remain vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling for All India Quota.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said that no compromise can be made with the quality of medical education, which will eventually affect public health in the long run. The top court observed that the decision of the government and the Medical Counselling Committee to not allow special stray round is in the interest of medical education and public health.

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The bench said, “When a conscious decision has been taken by the Union of India (UOI)  and the Medical Counselling Committee ( MCC ) for not conducting any special stray rounds of counselling, it cannot be considered arbitrary.”

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) informed the top court on Wednesday that it has concluded the four rounds of online counselling for NEET-PG-21. It further said that it cannot fill 1,456 seats by conducting a special stray counselling round as the software stands closed.

The petitions were filed by doctors who appeared in the NEET-PG 2021-22 examination and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of the All India Quota (AIQ) Counselling and State Quota Counselling. This was followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds that got over by May 7, post the All India Stray Vacancy Round.

With agency inputs