The Supreme Court has issued notices to the State Counsels of Karnataka and Bihar where the ongoing counselling for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduation (NEET PG 2022) has faced some delays. On the other hand, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has already proceeded with the mop-up round of the counselling for the All India Quota (AIQ) seats.
In Karnataka, the seat allotment result for Round One was released on November 2. The counselling was delayed in the state as it was put on hold by the Karnataka High Court after the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), which conducts the counselling in the state, reduced the quota for in-service candidates from 30% to 15%. The Karnataka High Court then quashed the state government order, following which a fresh seat matrix was released by the KEA with 20% of the government seats reserved for in-service candidates.
The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB) which conducts the state counselling in Bihar announced a revised schedule for Round 2 of the counselling on November 4, citing "unavoidable reasons". In Maharashtra as well, the state counselling has run into troubled waters with the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell excluding 400 seats during the allotment in Round 1. On November 3, the CET Cell announced a revised schedule for Round 2 seat allotment.
Amidst this unrest, the MCC has commenced the mop-up round of the NEET PG counselling. NEET PG aspirants have been demanding a stay on the results of the AIQ mop-up rounds, considering these delays. Ideally, experts suggest that state counselling rounds should be interspersed between the AIQ rounds, for example, AIQ Round 1 followed by State Rounds 1 and 2 and then AIQ Round 2, and then the mop-up rounds.
With the schedule out of sync for students in some states, they are in a situation where they might be able to get a go at all available choices before making their final decision. "To be able to select seats in the AIQ rounds, the candidates must be able to have the choice to decide that their respective state was not offering a better seat or a better branch. They cannot let go of the AIQ seats because there is so much uncertainty. The candidates should have the option to exercise choices between the AIQ and state rounds in a timely manner which is not being respected right now, and hence meritorious students are suffering," remarks Dr Aviral Mathur, President of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA).
