CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: As about 1,800 of the more than 4,000 super-specialty medical seats are lying vacant even after two rounds of counselling, Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union govt to consider lowering the NEET-SS 2025 qualifying cutoff marks.“Having examined the matter from different perspectives, we are of the opinion that it may be necessary to reconsider the decision for reducing the cut-off percentile,” a bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe said.“This is rather compelling because a large number of seats have remained unfilled even as of today,” the court said in the case concerning admissions under NEET-SS 2025 counselling.The bench asked additional solicitor-general Aishwarya Bhati to convey its concern to the Union health ministry and seek an appropriate decision and listed the matter for Sept 17.Earlier, Centre told Supreme Court that it had decided not to reduce the cut-off marks this year after consultations between all stakeholders — ministry of health, medical counselling committee (MCC) and National Medical Commission (NMC).“As per the directions of Supreme Court in the Kevin Joy case (2023), it has been decided to conduct a ‘special stray round’ by the medical counselling committee for the purpose of filling the vacant super-specialty seats arising out of NEET-SS 2025 counselling without reduction in the percentile criteria prescribed for admission in the said special stray round,” Bhati said, placing before the court a one-page note on the govt’s decision.Advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, appearing for some of the petitioners, however, told the bench that around 2,000 seats in colleges would remain vacant if the cut-off percentile was not reduced. She said that in the past, authorities had conducted special rounds, mop-up rounds, stray vacancy rounds and relaxation of eligibility criteria, whenever substantial super-specialty seats remained vacant. She said that at least a mop-up/stray vacancy round be conducted for seats remaining vacant after completion of the ongoing counselling process so that no super-specialty seat would go waste.Senior counsel P Wilson, who appeared on behalf of service doctors in Tamil Nadu, told the court that the 1,800 super-specialty seats remaining vacant included cardiology, neurosurgery and oncology — disciplines that train doctors to manage some of the country’s most complex illnesses. Allowing such seats to lapse would waste public investment and deepen the shortage of trained specialists, he said.Doctors told TOI that they were tired of waiting for admissions. The eligibility test for super-specialty admissions was completed in Dec 2025, and results were announced a month later. Until now, two rounds of counselling have been completed, and more than 1,800 seats, including those in cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery, and haematology, are vacant. “How can so many doctors, physicians and surgeons, be kept on wait for such a long time?” asked Dr R Sathish, a physician.
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“Unlike in MBBS or sometimes PGs, most candidates are breadwinners. Admissions to a super-specialty course means training while working for a hospital. Many have quit jobs in Feb waiting for admissions. While the seat we want is vacant, we don’t get it,” he said.Experts said that in earlier years, the authorities reduced the qualifying cutoff to zero after regular counselling rounds. “That made doctors who had appeared for the examination eligible to compete for vacant seats. Those single digits, zero or negative marks, become eligible,” said Dr K Senthil, former member of the postgraduate board of National Medical Commission. This relaxation offers an immediate way to prevent seats from going unused, without addressing broader issues such as weak job prospects after training, modest salaries, demanding work conditions and uncertain career paths, he said.
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