Maharashtra NEET UG 2025: Two more lose MBBS seats over extra Rs 61.2 lakh 'assurance' fee

Two more MBBS aspirants have reported admission denial in the first round of Maharashtra NEET UG stray vacancy 2025, with a fresh complaint against Terna Medical College and Dr Rajendra Gode Medical College, for allegedly intimidating and demanding extra fees. This comes weeks after a similar incident at SSPM medical college, where students accused the administration of denying concessions and demanding excessive fees.

The complaints come amid a major change in the Maharashtra MBBS counselling process. The Bombay High Court, in its interim order, allowed private colleges to fill their vacant MBBS and BDS seats through institute-level admissions, while CET Cell continued with their central allotment process.

Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Palghar, the state's only medical college run by a corporate firm, moved the court for college-level admission, and has also challenged the new NRI rules, which limit the non-resident Indian (NRI) quota benefits to only the actual NRIs and their children.

'We are unlucky': 2 more MBBS students lose seats

In the latest grievance submitted to Maharashtra State CET Cell, the student allotted an MBBS seat under the institutional quota at Terna Medical College, Navi Mumbai, and Dr Rajendra Gode Medical College, Amravati, said the reporting period was between 9 am on November 16 and 5.30 pm on November 17.

The Terna College complainant said that they reported at 1 pm on November 16, but they were sent to the CEO’s office instead of the counselling hall, where they allegedly were pressured, bullied, and demanded for extra fees not listed in the official fee structure.

The students alleged that the college demanded four cheques of Rs 15.30 lakh each – a total of Rs 61.2 lakh for the entire course – as “assurance” for a possible fee hike. The seat allotment was later denied after they refused to submit the cheques.

“At the last moment on the final day he demanded 4 extra cheques of 15,30,000 each as an assurance for the possibility of a fee hike which we denied, and on this basis he denied us our seat,” the student said in his complaint.

"Most distressingly, despite our compliance with every requirement and our presence throughout the entire day, the college authorities ultimately failed to grant admission even by the end of this protracted ordeal," another student wrote in their complaint.

Urging officials to conduct a fresh counselling round for affected students in “a safer environment”, the student said: “We were helpless like many other unlucky students who returned broken-hearted like us.”

The college has denied refusing admission to any candidate, or recieving any counselling-related complaint. Witrhout addressing the specific grievance, the college dean Sunil Petkar told Careers360, "We have followed all the rules laid down by the State CET Cell. We have only charged the amount mentioned in the fee structure - three times the regular fee for institute quota seast abnd five times for NRI candidates."

Maharashtra NEET UG stray vacancy round 2

Following the Bombay High Court's interim order, the Maharashtra CET Cell has converted the second stray vacancy round for private MBBS and BDS seats into an institute-level round, requiring candidates to directly apply to their desired institutes.

As many as 224 MBBS and 163 BDS seats are still up for grabs. The leftover government seats, however, have been allotted centrally, as per the official data.

A total of 44,702 candidates have been listed in the provisional merit list, published on November 17, for institutional-level stray vacancy round for MBBS, BDS under state quota.

The merit list and selection list will be published by 6.30 pm on November 18 on the official website, medicalug2025.mahacet.org/NEET-UG-2025/login.