Published Jan 25, 2024 | 6:34 PM ⚊ Updated Jan 25, 2024 | 6:34 PM
FAIMA and the United Doctors Front have both filed legal challenges, with UDF Chairperson Dr Lakshya Mittal taking the matter to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, on Thursday, 25 January, sought responses from the Union government and others on a plea by 13 doctors seeking directions for a third round of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Super Speciality (NEET-SS) counselling and permitting them to participate in it so that they could get seats in better institutions and pursue courses of their choice.
A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta agreed to hear the petition filed by these doctors who said that they qualified for the all-India Quota in the NEET-SS 2023-2024 entrance examination, held in September last year, and have been allotted seats in various super-speciality courses after the first and second round of counselling.
The Bench issued notice to the Union government, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the National Medical Commission (NMC), and others seeking their responses to the plea and posted it for hearing on Monday, 29 January.
The petitioners said that as of date, there are approximately over 140 vacant seats in NEET-SS courses and conducting a third round of counselling will allow them to upgrade their seats which would otherwise be made part of a mop-up or stray round, for which they are not eligible to participate.
“Depriving the petitioners of an opportunity to upgrade to the vacant seats while allowing less meritorious candidates to take up such seats would seriously dilute merit. Moreover, the same is also manifestly arbitrary and discriminatory against the petitioners and thus in violation of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution of India,” said the plea, filed through advocate Rashmi Nandakumar.
It said the petitioners have completed their education in medicine up to the level of postgraduation from various reputed colleges across the country.
The plea said that the issue of vacancies has been compounded as on 3 January and 16 January, 2024, a second and third round of counselling for super speciality seats/courses in the Institutes of National Importance (INI) was conducted by the AIIMS, Delhi.
Resultantly, it said, several candidates who had secured seats in the NEET-SS counselling (2023-24) also left or not join their respective seats leading to several more vacancies.
“Usually, the INI-SS counselling is conducted much prior to the NEET-SS counselling, however, due to delay in the NEET-SS counselling, there was a departure from the established schedule,” the plea said.
It said the NEET-SS 2023-24 prospectus and counselling scheme does not provide for a third round of counselling.
“It is submitted that the NEET-SS 2023-24 prospectus and counselling scheme does not (a) provide for a third round of counselling and (b) permit candidates such as the petitioners herein who have secured seats in the first and second round of counselling to upgrade to better seats (such as those seats which have been left/not joined by the candidates who have now joined INI-SS),” the plea said.
The petitioners have sought directions to the authorities concerned to hold a third round of counselling, allowing them to attempt for upgradation.
“Granting this opportunity would result in the petitioners vacating their current seats upon successful upgradation, thereby maintaining the overall number of available seats and allowing for merit-based seat allocation to their earlier seats,” it said.
On 22 January, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) officially communicated the reduction in the qualifying percentile for a special round of NEET-SS 2023 counselling through an official notice.
The cut-off percentile for the NEET-SS 2023 exam has also been lowered to “zero” for all categories.
Consequently, candidates who have successfully completed their postgraduate degrees and have participated in the NEET-SS 2023 examination are now eligible for additional rounds of counselling, aimed at filling the available super-speciality seats.
In a similar move for NEET-SS 2022, where eligibility criteria were adjusted, reducing it from the 50th percentile to the 20th percentile, the qualifying percentile for NEET-SS 2023 had also been lowered to address over 1,000 vacant super-speciality seats after the conclusion of two counselling rounds.
(With PTI inputs)
