Bombay HC orders fresh round 1 of Maharashtra NEET PG counselling for 116 in-service candidates

NEW DELHI: Granting relief to 116 in-service candidates, the Bombay High Court has asked the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell to conduct fresh round 1 of Maharashtra NEET PG counselling 2024. Postgraduate medical aspirants, falling under the 20% state quota for in-service candidates, filed petitions in the HC seeking reopening of first round admissions through the National Eligibility Entrance Test - Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2024, alleging that incentive marks were not added while preparing the merit list.

The introduction of the percentile system in NEET PG 2024 exam held this year, which required the normalization of marks as the entrance test was conducted in two shifts, led to the issue. However, due to the inability of the Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and the CET Cell to incorporate incentive marks into the percentile scores provided by the National Board of Examinations (NBE), the authorities published the final merit list without adding the marks of candidates who served in rural, hilly and naxalite areas in the state. The merit list was used for filling seats in the first Centralised Admission Process (CAP) round 1 of NEET PG counselling.

The CET cell declared the seat allotment result for the first round of Maharashtra NEET PG counselling on November 30 and the last date to report to allotted institutes was December 4.

A division bench comprising Justices SG Mehare and SP Brahme heard the petitions and, after holding discussions with the concerned authorities – including the NBE, Director of Health Services (DHS) Maharashtra, and CET Cell found a solution to add the incentive marks in percentage to the candidates' percentile scores. This process was completed on December 6, 2024.

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Following this, the high court directed the CET Cell to publish a revised merit list for CAP round 1 of Maharashtra NEET PG 2024 counselling, allowing 116 in-service candidates to re-submit their preferences. The court also ordered the CET Cell to conduct a fresh NEET PG seat allocation process for the 20% quota of in-service candidates in the first CAP round. This exercise is to be completed before December 15, 2024, to ensure it does not affect the schedule for the second CAP round which commences from December 16, 2024.