The Apex Court also ordered that the second round of NEET SS counselling should be conducted using the existing qualifying percentile, clarifying that if the qualifying percentile is reduced after the second round, 50% of such seats will be returned to the Tamil Nadu government, while the remaining 50% will be filled by the DGHS through subsequent rounds of counselling.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 18, 2026.
Welcoming the Court's directions, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) urged the MCC to immediately resume NEET SS 2025 counselling and implement the Supreme Court's order without any further delay.
FAIMA said that thousands of doctors aspiring to pursue super-speciality courses have already been waiting for several months due to the delay in counselling. The association added that any further delay would not only affect the careers of these doctors but also impact patient care by delaying the availability of specialist doctors.
"FAIMA welcomes the Hon'ble Supreme Court's direction to the Tamil Nadu Government to restore the 151 NEET SS seats by tomorrow evening and its order to MCC to conclude the counselling process within 2 weeks. We sincerely appeal to MCC to resume NEET SS 2025 counselling immediately and implement the Hon'ble Court's directions without any further delay. Thousands of specialist doctors have already waited for months, and every additional delay impacts both their careers and patient care," the association wrote in an X post.
Also read- NEET SS Counselling 2025: MCC reopens round 2 registrations, announces automatic upgradation
Commenting on this, FAIMA National Chairman, Dr Jaideep Kumar Choudhary told Medical Dialogues, "FAIMA after writing to almost every authority concerned with NEET-SS counseling and to the apex court officials, was hopeful that the verdict by the Hon'ble court will favour the NEET-SS aspirants and it eventually has ordered the Tamil Nadu Government to revert back the 151 vacant seats by today evening. This will in turn help the counseling authorities to resume counseling soon. It was a long struggle where FAIMA stood by the aspirants in every step. The aspirants even have sent us many messages of thanksgiving and We, the FAIMA would like to thank every official from the judiciary who responded to our letters for the speedy hearing in this case. We also request the concerned authorities to kindly take concrete steps to ensure that the NEET-SS examination be conducted and the counseling must be completed within a respectable time frame so that the aspirants may not have to face anxiety issues and career distrurbance in the future. Timely examination and counseling will ultimately help the common people of India who will be served by the super speciality services given by these NEET-SS candidates."
The matter was listed before the Supreme Court bench on July 28. Thousands of NEET-SS qualified specialist doctors are currently without jobs due to the 5 months of delay in the counselling process.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the counselling process for the superspeciality medical admissions came to a standstill in April 2026 due to the Supreme Court case titled Tamilvani & Ors. vs State of Tamil Nadu, which concerns the reversion of 151 vacant in-service seats from Tamil Nadu State Quota to the All India Quota pool.
Then, disposing of the plea seeking surrender of those unfilled DM and M.Ch seats in the ongoing NEET-SS 2025 counselling process, the Supreme Court directed the State of Tamil Nadu Government to surrender these seats to the All India Quota.
"The State of Tamil Nadu will take necessary steps to intimate the Director General of Health Services about the 151 vacant seats that have remained unfilled," the Apex Court bench comprising Justices Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Alok Aradhe ordered so that these seats could be filled through the All India merit list.
However, a new petition was filed in this regard by Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association (and another) seeking to restrain the State from surrendering those vacant super speciality seats to All India Quota. Filing the plea, the petitioners prayed that the in-service candidates in Tamil Nadu be permitted to compete for the said superspeciality seats in the 3rd round or a mop-up round if the percentile falls below 50% after the 2nd round of the all-India counselling.
While issuing notice on the plea, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi had orally observed that the cut-off for in-service candidates serving under the State should be lower as they are serving the public and continuing their study at the same time.
During the hearing, Justice Nagarathna remarked that "a govt doctor, if acquires more skills, will serve public health better than private doctor".
Meanwhile, earlier this month, MCC reopened the Registration/Reset Registration window for Round 2 of the NEET SS Counselling for the academic year 2025. The registration facility will remain open until further orders from the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Tamilvani & Others vs State of Tamil Nadu (W.P. No. 415 of 2026) concerning the reversion of in-service seats of Tamil Nadu to the All India Quota (AIQ) pool, MCC had announced.
Now, following SC’s order, the new NEET SS 2025 counselling schedule is expected to be announced soon on the official MCC website.
NEET SS 2025 Round 2 counselling timeline
| Event | Original Timeline | Current Status |
Round 1 counselling | March 10 to March 25, 2026 | Completed |
Round 2 registration | March 28, 2026 | Portal reopened until further orders |
Round 2 choice filling | April 2026 | Paused and expected to resume |
Seat matrix changes | April 2026 | 18 seats added, 1 seat removed; 151 seats now restored |
Seat allotment result | Not announced | Expected Shortly |
Reporting and counselling closure | Postponed | To be completed within two weeks as per Supreme Court order |
Also read- Doctors urge centre to expedite NEET SS hearing, resume counselling
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