Centre reviews zero percentile NEET PG cutoff policy amid concerns over medical education standards: Report

New Delhi: Amid ongoing debate and concerns over medical education standards, the Union Government is now reviewing its NEET PG zero-percentile cut-off policy for admission to postgraduate medical seats, Mint has reported.

Even though the decision to remove a minimum cut-off percentile was taken to fill vacant postgraduate medical seats, two government officials aware of the matter informed Mint that the Centre is now reviewing the policy. 

The decision to reduce the NEET-PG cut-off to "Zero" was taken first in the year 2023. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) offered relief to the Postgraduate medical aspirants and reduced the cut-off for the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2023 to "Zero" across all categories.

Due to this move, all those who appeared for the test were made eligible to appear in the counselling. The decision has drawn criticism as many feel mediocre medical students will secure seats in specialised postgraduate courses, jeopardising public health.

This move was criticised and even challenged before the Supreme Court. Observing that the petitioner had no locus standi, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain the plea challenging the Government's decision to reduce the qualifying percentile of NEET-PG 2023 counselling to Zero.

Also Read: NEET PG 2023: SC Refuses to Entertain Plea Challenging 'Zero' Cutoff Percentile

Despite this zero percentile cut-off policy, 1,140 postgraduate seats remained unfilled in the 2025-2026 academic year. This has now freshly raised concerns over the diluted medical education standards and the waste of taxpayers' money. For every postgraduate seat, the government spends about Rs 1.25 crore.

According to the two officials, both speaking on condition of anonymity to Livemint, the Union Health Ministry is now considering a more merit-based approach, instead of lowering the cutoff to zero, along with multi-tiered counselling rounds based on remaining vacancies.

Why Doctors are opposing Zero Percentile Policy: 

Earlier this year, NBE, through a notice dated 13.01.2026, revised the qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025, for the academic session 2025-2026, for the General/EWS, General PwBD, SC/ST/OBC(Including PwBD of SC/ST/OBC) categories; the revised qualifying cut-off was 7th, 5th, and 0th percentile, respectively.

Therefore, the revised cut-off score after lowering the cut-off percentile is 103 for General/EWS, 90 for General PwBD, and -40 for SC/ST/OBC(Including PwBD of SC/ST/OBC) categories, respectively.

The members of the medical fraternity vehemently opposed this move, pointing out that due to this decision, even those who scored -40 marks in the exam would be eligible to take admission in the highly sought-after clinical specialities, which, according to doctors, will compromise merit.

Pointing out how the reduction of cut-off to zero percentile and allowing candidates scoring even -40 to pursue the PG medical courses and become specialist doctors was a "blow to meritocracy" and a "direct threat to patient safety and public health", the doctors under the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) and the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) had urged the Union Health Minister, Shri J P Nadda, to reverse this decision.