Breaking | NEET PG 2021: MCC Tells Supreme Court It Can't Conduct Special Stray Counselling To Fill Vacant Seats, Will Disrupt Present Academic Year

"That at present, the software that was being used for conducting online counselling 2021 is closed and refund of security deposit for participation in PG counselling 2021 is also initiated. It is pertinent to mention that NEET-PG 2022 examination was conducted on 21.05.2022 and Results have been announced on 01.06.2022 by examination conducting body (i.e. National Board of Examination)," the affidavit states.

The affidavit has been filed in the writ seeking a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate for vacant seats available after the conduct of a stray vacant round of AIQ.

MCC in the affidavit has further stated that the MCC and Union of India has commenced with the preparation of NEET PG 2022 counselling and it is likely to be conducted in the month of July.

"The prayer of the petitioner is at a belated stage, as it will disrupt the whole process for upcoming counselling session (i.e. NEET-PG 2022). It is submitted that counselling for two academic sessions cannot run concurrently," the affidavit states.

MCC in the affidavit has further stated that total number 2,025 seats were offered in AlQ stray vacancy round of PG 2021 counselling for which total number of 1,17,945 candidates have participated in AIQ stray vacancy round.

"Even after conducting Stray vacancy round 1,456 seats have remained vacant, of which approximately 1,117 seats (i.e. 76.7% of total remaining seats) belong to pre-paramedical seats, which were not selected by the participating candidates in various rounds of counselling. It is submitted that the number of seats remaining vacant after the last round of PG Counselling in the year 2019, 2020,2021," the affidavit further states.

It has also been stated that the rise in number of vacant seats as compared to previous years is due to:

Compliance of the judgement dated May 26, 2020 in the the matter of Alapati Jyotsana & Ors. W/s Uol & Ors counselling for the DNB courses were also included in NEET PG

No seats were reverted back to the respective participating States after completion of Round 2 of AIQ. As per the modified scheme of AIO which was accepted. Hence, third round i.e. mop-up round and fourth round i.e. online stray vacancy round was conducted in AlO from 2021-22 onwards.

It may be noted that the Top Court on Wednesday had come down heavily upon the Medical Counselling Committee on, stating that leaving seats in NEET-PG vacant not only puts aspirants into difficulty but also leads to dearth of qualified doctors.

While adjourning the matter for Thursday, the vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose had permitted the authority to file its affidavit during the course of the day explaining the position of the vacant seats & why they were not filled in.

Case Title: Astha Goel v MCC