NEET PG 2018: MCC resumes counselling for PG medical seats

NEW DELHI, April 19: The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has resumed the counselling process for PG medical seats available under 50% All India Quota of NEET on April 18, 2018. The NEET PG counselling had been earlier stopped in accordance with the interim order passed by Justice S Vaidyanathan in the High Court of Madras on April 17, 2018.

As per the latest notice released by the MCC, the Writ Petition on the basis of which the interim order was issued has now been dismissed by the High Court of Madras. According to the interim order, MCC was asked to stop the admission process it was conducted based on the second counselling round result declared on April 14, 2018. MCC had already conducted the first round of counselling process and is currently in the process of completing the reporting formalities for candidates who have been allotted seats in the second round.

See the notice issued by the MCC declaring the resumption of NEET PG counselling below -

What was the Writ Petition about?

The Writ Petition on the basis of which the interim High Court order to stay the counselling process had been passed was originally filed by Dr. C. Sudhan and others who are in-service candidates of Tamil Nadu state. There were multiple petitions filed by such candidates, among which one of them sought reservation for in-service candidates for admission to PG medical courses under the All India Quota seat scheme.

As per the petitioners, there should be a provision to award weightage in NEET PG All India Quota seats to candidates who have worked in remote/difficult areas. They argued that the places they served in were notified as remote/difficult areas by the State government and thereby they were entitled to additional weightage as per Regulation 9 (IV) of PG Regulations 2000 under All India Quota seats. The Court was subsequently inclined to stay the NEET PG counselling process on April 17, 2018 while it assessed the merits of the petition.

Check the notification issued by the MCC after the NEET PG 2nd counselling round was stayed - 

High Court dismisses Petition

The HC judge in his order first made it very clear that for 50% All India Quota seats, only the NEET PG exam score would be considered. With regard to seat reservation for the seats available under 50% State Quota, media reports quoted Justice Vaidyanathan stating that, “A plain reading of Regulation 9 (VI) and 9 (VII) of Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, makes it very clear that 50 percent of the seats under the state quota cannot be reserved to in-service candidates.”

Dr. C Sudhan and the other in-service candidates currently work as assistant surgeons with the Tamil Nadu Medical Services as per media reports. They had appeared for NEET-PG 2018 and qualified the entrance exam by securing 50^th percentile which made them eligible to participate in the counselling process for seats available under 50% All India Quota and 50% State Quota.