Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking special stray round of NEET PG 2021 counselling

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking a special stray round of counselling to fill 1,456 seats in NEET PG 2021 which have remained vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling for All India Quota. A bench of Justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose said there cannot be any compromise with the quality of medical education which will affect public health.

The top court said the decision of the government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to allow special stray round is in the interest of medical education and public health. "When a conscious decision has been taken by the UOI and MCC for not conducting any special stray rounds of counselling, it cannot be considered arbitrary," the bench said.

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The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) had informed the top court on Wednesday that it has concluded four rounds of online counselling for NEET PG 2021 and it cannot fill 1,456 seats by conducting a special stray round of counselling as the software stands closed.

The petitions had been filed by doctors who appeared in NEET PG 2021-22 examination and participated in Rounds 1 and 2 of the All India Quota (AIQ) Counselling and State Quota Counselling which was followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds and concluded on May 7 by the MCC post the All India Stray Vacancy Round.