New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the Centre, the National Medical Commission (NMC), and other concerned parties on a plea requesting a fresh round of All India Quota (AIQ) round 3 counselling for NEET-PG 2024.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran issued a notice regarding the plea and scheduled the next hearing for February 7.
What Does the Petition Claim?
The petitioners, who are eligible for NEET-PG 2024 counselling, argued that AIQ round 3 counselling started before the completion of round 2 counselling in some states.
Filed by advocate Tanvi Dubey, the plea highlighted that the scheduling conflict between AIQ and state quota counselling led to a situation where candidates from states where round 2 was delayed were able to register and secure seats in AIQ round 3, even though they were otherwise ineligible.
The plea stated that once state round 2 counselling began, these candidates had the advantage of choosing a better option and vacating their AIQ seats, which deprived other eligible candidates of their rightful seats.
Seat Blocking Led to Disadvantage for Meritorious Candidates
The petitioners argued that if AIQ round 3 counselling had been conducted only after all states had completed their round 2 counselling, candidates would not have had the undue advantage of securing and later vacating seats.
Specifically mentioning Madhya Pradesh, the plea pointed out that round 2 counselling there had not concluded by the time AIQ round 3 results were declared. As a result, some candidates from the state were able to block seats, which they later vacated, causing deserving candidates to lose opportunities.
The plea further alleged that this process violated the NEET-PG counselling schedule previously set by the Supreme Court.
What Are the Petitioners Demanding?
The petition seeks a directive for the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to cancel AIQ round 3 counselling and conduct it afresh due to irregularities in the process.
Alternatively, the plea requests that a fourth round of counselling be held for seats that were blocked by candidates from states where round 2 was not concluded on time. Additionally, it asks that eligible AIQ round 3 candidates be given an opportunity to register for the stray vacancy round of NEET-PG 2024 counselling.
