'Not a single seat must remain unfilled', SC slams MCC over vacant NEET PG seats

The Supreme Court slammed the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) on Wednesday, June 8, for "playing with the future" of medical students by requesting that not a single NEET PG seat be wasted. The Supreme Court has also directed the MCC to file an affidavit on the petition seeking to hold a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow candidates to compete for vacant seats left over after the All India Quota stray vacancy round (AIQ).

The vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose directed MCC's counsel and the Centre to file an affidavit explaining why seats were unoccupied. The court listed the matter tomorrow for further hearing. During the hearing, the court expressed dismay to hear that 1,456 seats have remained vacant, stated a copy by IANS.

MCC's counsel requested more time to file an affidavit in this regard. The MCC counsel also stated that counselling in 2022 will be delayed, with a cascade impact. "Do you know the stress level of students?" the judge asked, inquiring why there is no streamlining method. When the court learnt that the MCC was aware of the unfilled seats in May, it expressed dismay and asked, "What will you get by keeping seats vacant when we need doctors and super-specialists?"

The court was considering a motion to order the Respondent — Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) — to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow candidates to compete for vacant seats that become available after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of All India Quota (AIQ). Advocate Milind Kumar represented the petitioners. The petitioners took part in NEET-PG 2021-22 and Rounds 1 and 2 of All India Quota (AIQ) Counselling and State Quota Counselling, which was followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds, and was finally concluded on May 7, 2022, by the Medical Counselling Committee following the All India Stray Vacancy Round.

In none of the rounds, the petitioners were able to secure a seat. They alleged that they were harmed by MCC's counselling process, which was performed in such a way that all of the vacant seats were not included in the stray vacancy round. They said that the cause of action for filing the present Writ Petition arose on May 11, 2022, when the petitioners received a reply to the RTI they had filed, wherein it was stated that "At the time of online allotment process all medical/dental post-graduate seats were exhausted but due to non-joining, resignation, and non-reported some seats remained vacant". However, official data has not been provided, the petitioners said.

Hence, the petitioners have sought to direct the MCC to provide the exact number of vacant seats after the conduct of the stray vacancy round of AIQ and to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate in the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of stray vacancy round of AIQ.