NEET UG: NMC revises age criteria, tie-breaking rules; applicable from next year

NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has again fixed December 31 of the year of admission as the date of completion of minimum 17 years to appear National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test- Undergraduate or NEET UG. This came five days after the commission in its “Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023” (GMER-23) had set the new cut-off date for completion of minimum 17 years at January 31 of the year of admission to UG medical courses.

“The word “January” in Clause 11 (a) under the heading Admission, Counselling and Migration etc,” in chapter III of GEMR 2023 may please be read as “December. Necessary amendment is being issued separately,” NMC said in a notice dated June 13, 2023 while referring to the age criteria for appearing in NEET UG mentioned in gazetted notification of GMER-23.

The GMER-23 regulations were published in Indian Gazette on June 2 and were uploaded on the official NMC website - nmc.org.in on Thursday. NMC had made the draft of GMER-23 public for comment on February 27.

NEET UG : New tie-breaking rules

In the GMER-23 regulations, NMC announced that in case of tie in NEET-UG marks, the respective marks obtained in physics followed by chemistry and then biology will be considered and in that order. If the tie continues, then eligible candidates will be selected from the draw lots by using a computer, with no human intervention. These rules will be applicable from NEET UG-2024.

NMC in its latest notice has clarified that “the previous procedures and rules (as per information bulletin published by the National Testing Agency) shall be followed for deciding “the inter-se-merit of candidates for tie-breaking” in NEET-UG 2023 results.”

The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Tuesday announced the NEET UG 2023 results with both Tamil Nadu’s Prabanjan J and Andhra Pradesh's Bora Varun Chakravarthi bagging All India Rank (AIR) 1 jointly. The toppers of NEET UG 2023 have scored perfect 720 marks with 99.9999019 percentile score. This is for the first time in history of NEET UG exams that AIR 1 is shared by two candidates.

In the existing NEET tie-break rules, scores in biology (zoology and botany), chemistry and physics– were considered and in that order. If the tie continued, negative marks became a factor. Until March, if the scores still remained equal, age was a factor with the older candidate getting the higher rank. This is how Soyeb Aftab became the NEET topper in 2020.

The NTA NEET tie-breaking rules were altered in March to remove the age factor from deciding NEET AIR in cases where candidates have scored the same across sections. NEET scores will be used for admission to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH, veterinary, BSC Nursing and BSc Life Sciences programmes.

GMER 2023 guidelines

NMC through its GMER 2023 guidelines has stated that NMC may conduct the NEET-UG or may designate a single agency or multiple agencies or authority to conduct the NEET-UG. Currently, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is conducting the national-level entrance examination for UG medical courses.

NMC's new regulations state that there shall be common counselling for admission to graduate courses in medicine for all medical institutions in India based on the merit list of the NEET-UG. The commission has also reduced the maximum duration of completion of MBBS course from 10 years to nine years.