SC Dismisses Plea To Hold Special Stray Counselling Round For Vacant Seats In NEET PG 2021

The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea filed by Doctors who had appeared for NEET PG 2021 seeking conduct of a special stray round of counselling to fill up the remaining vacant 1456 seats under the All India Quota.

The vacation bench comprising of Justice M. R. Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose held that no relief can be given to the petitioners as the decision to not hold another round cannot be called arbitrary and granting such relief would affect the quality of education, which in turn would affect public health.

The Apex Court had heard the plea regarding 1456 seats still remaining vacant under the All India Quota in the NEET PG 2021. It was prayed before the Court that special stray rounds be held to fill the remaining seats.

On Wednesday while hearing the plea, the Apex Court had expressed indignation towards the Medical Counselling Committee stating that leaving seats vacant leaves a shortage of qualified medical practitioners. The Court also said that such acts put the future of students in uncertainty.

The MCC filed an affidavit stating that the software being used for counselling has been closed and that is why the vacancies could not be fulfilled. The Centre also submitted that the vacant seats are mostly non-clinical seats and thus students do not usually opt for those seats.

The Court was also informed that 9 rounds of counselling had already happened and the classes for the people who had qualified have already started.