MBBS doctors move Supreme Court over cancellation of INI CET open round counselling 2022

NEW DELHI: Doctors who cleared the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) July 2022 session have moved Supreme Court against All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) New Delhi's decision to cancel the INI CET open round counselling 2022. The petitioners have moved the apex court as 80 percent postgraduate (PG) medical courses seats in top medical institutes are lying vacant. The matter is listed in Supreme Court for hearing tomorrow.

The petition copy accessed by Careers360 states that the candidates were not given any intimation conveying the possibility of cancellation of the open and on-the spot admission round. The candidates are “victims of circumstance as they are made to suffer without any fault on their part".

“In the event the open round of counselling is cancelled, closer to 80% of the seats for this academic session will go waste as only 182 candidates out of a total of 919 candidates have occupied seats and the rest are yet remaining vacant,” the petition says.

The petitioners have requested the court to direct AIIMS New Delhi to organise the remaining rounds of the INI-CET counselling (including the open round), without any further delay.

INI CET 2022 counselling cancellation

Petitioner Sarthak Vats, 27, who has earned his MBBS degree from Tripura Medical College, Agartala and cleared INI CET July 2022 session said, “The cancellation of open round counselling will affect over 1000 students who were waiting to get a seat in the premiere medical colleges. Seats are vacant in these medical institutions. It would result in overburdening of doctors who are working there as there will be less resident doctors in these medical institutions.”

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The bi-annual computer-based test was conducted by AIIMS, New Delhi for admission into July 2022 session of postgraduate courses [MD, MS, DM (6 years), MCh (6 years) and MDS] at Institutes of National Importance (INI) for medical education namely, AIIMS-New Delhi and all new AIIMS, JIPMER Puducherry, NIMHANS-Bengaluru, PGIMER-Chandigarh and SCTIMST- Trivandrum. The test was conducted on May 8 and the INI CET 2022 results were announced on May 14.

AIIMS New Delhi conducted only two rounds of counselling between August 5 and 31. It issued a notice on September 19, 2022 stating that no further round of seat allocation under shall be conducted.

The petitioners have challenged the notice as it is “against the spirit” of the AIIMS information bulletin for INI-CET July 2022 session which states that the authority will conduct at least two rounds followed by Open Round. “Additional Rounds of seat allocation may be done before the Open Round, if needed. "Postgraduate seats remaining vacant even after the Open Round may be filled by conduct of ‘spot Round' by individual INIs after due approval of their competent authority,” says the AIIMS information bulletin.

The decision to cancel the open and on-the spot admission round of counselling, according to the petition is “adversarial to the interest of several candidates as the seat allocated to them for this year will hold no validity for the next session".

The petition filed by MBBS graduates and Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and General Secretary Resident Doctors Association (RDA) AIIMS Bhopal called the decision to cancel INI CET 2022 open round counselling as “arbitrary and discriminatory”, as their opportunity of getting a seat through open and on-spot admission was being “snatched away”.

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The petition also sought direction to the AIIMS Delhi to declare defined criteria for arriving at seat matrix for the institutional preference candidates. The writ petition also pointed out that AIIMS Delhi got sufficient time to implement the Supreme Court order dated May 13, as the INI CET round 1 counselling was held on August 5, 2022. The top court order instructed all AIIMS Institutes to adopt roster based reservation followed by Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical (JIPMER).