On Friday, November 11, the Supreme Court directed all States and Union Territories to complete the second round of NEET PG 2022-23 counselling by 6 pm on November 16, as stated in a report by LiveLaw. "In order to ensure finality in the process of counselling in NEET PG, we direct all States and Union Territories to finish second round of counselling at 6PM on 16th Nov, 2022 and submit data on the same day to MCC," a Bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli observed.
Further, the Bench said, "The counselling for Mop-Up Round shall then be carried out by the competent authority. State of Maharashtra shall commence with State Mop-Up Round only after AIQ (All India Quota) Mop-Up Round is over."
Also, the Bench passed the order in a contempt petition that highlighted the grievance that in the States of Karnataka and Bihar, Round 2 of Counselling is yet to be completed while the Mop-Up Round is already in progress.
According to the order of the Supreme Court in Nihila PP v Medical Counselling Committee And Ors, four rounds of counselling were contemplated for the AIQ PG seats. The last two of these were to be the Mop-Up Rounds and the stray vacancy round. The modification was to be implemented for admissions to NEET UG and PG for the academic year 2021-2022.
An advisory was issued on March 16, 2022, by the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, with respect to the eligibility of candidates to participate in the Mop-Up Round conducted by the MCC after the completion of Round 2 of Counselling by the state authorities.
