A fresh mop-up round for NEET-PG courses has been ordered by the Supreme Court, which, on Thursday, March 31, also cancelled the mop-up round counselling that was conducted by the  Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) last week. 

The Bench decided that this new round of counselling will account for the 146 All India Quota (AIQ) seats that were added by the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) in the mop-up round of counselling. The petitioners had claimed that these seats were not available to them during the second round and that students with relatively lower ranks might end up getting "better disciplines". This, the petitioners claimed, was against the concept of merit. 

Led by Justice DY Chandrachud and consisting of Justices Surya Kant and Bela Trivedi, the Bench has given the DGHS 72 hours to wrap up the proceedings of this fresh round of counselling. The students must be able to select their options in the next 24 hours and it shouldn't take more than two weeks' time to wrap up the entire process, the top court opined. 

The Bench had also expressed concerns over the MCC's directive that prohibited students who participated in the state quota seats from contesting for these AIQ seats as well. 

The fresh round of mop-up counselling will be available to students who have already registered for the NEET PG Counselling and have not already joined a college up until the state quota, round 2 counselling.