NEET Counselling 2021: 5 points on new AIQ counselling process of MCC

NEW DELHI: Giving medical aspirants a breath of fresh air amidst ongoing crisis, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has decided to conduct four rounds of counselling including mop-up and stray vacancy rounds for All India Quota (AIQ) seats in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) UG and PG 2021 and declared that vacant seats will not go back to the state quota after the second round of counselling like previous years.

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MCC notified changes in AIQ counselling for both 15% undergraduate and 50% postgraduate seats in NEET on December 18. The commission submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court disclosing the new changes.

NEET 2021: New AIQ counselling process

In the affidavit filed by MCC in the Supreme Court, the changed AIQ counselling process is as follows:

• MCC will conduct 4 rounds of counselling - AIQ Round 1, AIQ Round 2, AIQ Mop-up round, and AIQ stray vacancy round.
• Vacant seats after completion of Round 2 will be filled in mop-up and stray vacancy round by MCC in online mode.
• Fresh candidates will only be allowed in the first three rounds and not in the stray vacancy round.
• Candidates who join the allotted seat in Round 1 will not be allowed to resign and will be ineligible for participating in further rounds of counseling.
• Candidates who do not join the allotted seat in Round 2 will be eligible for further rounds of counselling by paying a security deposit and applying for fresh registration in mop-up round only.

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The decision comes after top court’s direction sought by two Kerala students, who despite securing comparatively higher marks in NEET 2020, were denied admission to MBBS because first, there were only two rounds of counselling and second, vacant seats after round 2 were sent back to state (in their case, students under state quota got admission even while having lesser marks).