Rajasthan NEET PG counselling 2024 resumes after HC says ‘no error at all’; NBE explains normalisation rule

NEW DELHI: The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed a petition alleging erroneous merit list in the state NEET PG counselling 2024 stating “there is no apparent arbitrariness or illegality”. Following this, the SMS Medical College, Jaipur has declared the Rajasthan NEET PG round 1 provisional allotments 2024 for 1,506 candidates for admission into MD, MS, and PG diploma courses.

A group of 45 doctors approached the high court challenging the provisional state merit list issued by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) for Rajasthan NEET PG admissions. The court, which resumed hearing on the matter on Friday, has also dismissed its earlier stay order on the state counselling process.

Taking note of the court decision on NEET PG 2024, the SMS Medical College, Jaipur has notified the provisional allotment results for a total of 1,506 candidates for admission into MD, MS, and PG diploma courses.

“This Court is satisfied with the explanation given by the Executive Director, NBEMS and there appears to be no illegality or arbitrariness in the result so prepared. The altered merit position is bound to happen and is unavoidable. As a matter of fact, it is not a discrepancy at all. The Board has uniformly applied method of percentile. They have taken help of the experts on the subject,” the high court order read.

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A group of doctors approached the Rajasthan High Court claiming the state merit list published by the NBEMS on November 22 had errors. The petitioners were working as medical officers with the state and were entitled to bonus marks to the extent of 10%, 20% and 30% on the basis of length of their services in the rural areas or difficult areas.

Subsequently, the Rajasthan NEET PG merit list 2024 raised concerns as the ranks were significantly changed. The candidates who were lower in All India Merit List have come higher in State merit list so prepared by the respondents.

NBEMS explains NEET PG normalisation

The NBE explained to the court that it prepared NEET PG percentile of the marks obtained by the candidates in each shift. Therefore, if the bonus marks of 10%, 20% and 30% were to be added to those percentile, “it would be a mathematical disaster”, as the percentile is not indicative of the marks obtained by the candidates but the performance in comparison to the other candidates in the same shift, the NBE board said. The NBE adopted a normalisation method used by AIIMS to prepare the NEET PG results.

The petitioners submitted the all India rank and state merit list details of the following candidates.

Comparing the 61402 and 62473 all India rank holders’ state merit, the counsel said in spite of having the in-service experience of 3 years, these candidates were placed at 1283, 1144 in the combined merit list for Rajasthan NEET PG counselling 2024.

Subodh Kumar, executive director of NBEMS through video conferencing explained that the NEET PG results were prepared by “adopting a scientific method”.

“An exercise was undertaken and on the basis of the percentage suggested by the State of Rajasthan, their raw marks (not percentile) were reckoned and incentivised marks were calculated and then again, shift-wise percentile was calculated on the basis of All India data and merit list after merging the result of Ist shift and IInd shift, the candidates of Rajasthan were picked and merit list was sent to the State Government,” the NBEMS said.