'Stop holding doctors hostage': Demand for immediate resumption of NEET SS counselling escalates

New Delhi: Pointing out that thousands of qualified medicos are currently unemployed and suffering from severe mental and financial hardships due to the prolonged delays in the admission process, doctors have urged the authorities to resume the Round 2 counselling of NEET SS 2025 immediately.

The NEET SS aspirants have urged the Tamil Nadu Government to surrender the vacant superspeciality seats under the superspeciality State Quota to the All India Quota pool to put an end to the legal conflict.

Meanwhile, the doctors under the United Doctors Front (UDF) have blamed the authorities for the systemic failure regarding the NEET-SS counselling and demanded that Round 2 of the counselling be resumed immediately.

In an X post, UDF highlighted that the NEET SS exam was conducted in December 2025, results were declared in February 2026. Consequently, Round 1 counselling was completed in March 2026 and Round 2 Choice filling was extended "till further orders" for months due to Tamilveni & Ors. vs State of Tamil Nadu case.

"Even after recent SC directions on 151 vacant seats, zero resumption. Why are there no strict, binding guidelines or fixed timelines from authorities to prevent these recurring annual delays that plague NEET UG, PG & SS every single year? Thousands of qualified super-specialists are unemployed, have resigned previous jobs, and are suffering severe mental, financial & career destruction — all because of bureaucratic inertia + repeated court interventions with no accountability. Patients across India are being deprived of specialist care," UDF mentioned in the X post.

The association has urged the authorities including the Union Health Ministry, DGHS, the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Union Health Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "resume #NEETSS Round 2 immediately."

"Issue clear, enforceable timelines for all future counseling. Stop holding doctors hostage," the association further demanded.

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.

Recently, 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 has been 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 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".

Highlighting that the in-service doctors lose out on merit as they are serving the public healthcare alongside their study, Justice Nagarathna remarked, "In every State, there are in-service candidates. They are government doctors. They are there for public health. Cut-off for them must be lesser. Reason being, they are serving and studying. On the other hand there are students, when it comes to PG Diploma and...they are sitting at home and studying. They are not serving. In-service is a different channel. If you just give it up, how will State doctors benefit? It is for people of the State...public health. They are all working in State government hospitals. You just enable them to achieve greater skills...super-speciality. There must be, according to me, a lesser cutoff for them because they are working and studying. If All India [quota] takes away, how does it help the State doctors?"

Even though the bench clarified that it was not modifying the direction of the co-ordinate bench, Justice Nagarathna stressed, "We are concerned with public health - whichever State it may be. In-service is a separate category of admission. You want 152 seats but you don't admit. They can't sit at home and study. Their merit comes down because they serve and study. If the Director General will reduce, it will benefit all in-service candidates all over the country. Not just Tamil Nadu."

Plea Before Supreme Court, Aspirants Express Concerns

With the new petition filed before the Supreme Court, the issue of the vacant super-speciality seats remains unsolved. Amid this, the NEET SS aspirants have expressed concerns regarding the observations made by the Apex Court bench

"Thousands of NEET-SS 2025 aspirants across India continue to face uncertainty due to prolonged delays in the counselling process. Candidates who have successfully completed the national entrance examination are being forced to wait indefinitely while crucial decisions regarding in-service quotas, percentile reductions, and seat surrender policies remain unresolved," a recent Press Release by NEET SS aspirants mentioned.

They urged the authorities to implement the Supreme Court's order dated 29 May, requiring the surrender of the vacant superspeciality seats under the State Quota to the All India Quota. 

"It is important to note that the Supreme Court's order dated 29 May was issued in the context of the interim directions in WP(C) No. 53/2022, which require that vacant Super-Speciality seats remaining unfilled after completion of State counselling be reverted to the All India Quota (AIQ). The objective of this policy is to prevent the wastage of precious DM and MCh seats and ensure their optimal utilization through a national merit-based process," added the release.

The aspirants further added in the release that any proposal to introduce separate qualifying standards or lower percentiles for a specific category of candidates raises serious concerns regarding fairness and equality.

"NEET-SS is a single national examination, and all candidates compete for highly specialized training positions. Different qualifying benchmarks for candidates appearing in the same examination undermine the principles of merit, equal opportunity, and uniform national standards. While the contribution of government doctors to public healthcare is widely acknowledged and respected, admissions to Super-Speciality courses must remain based on objective and uniform criteria. Excellence in healthcare cannot be promoted by creating unequal standards within the same examination system," the release said.

"We are particularly concerned by the observations of Justice B. V. Nagarathna favoring lower qualifying standards for in-service candidates on the premise that government doctors serve public health better than their counterparts. Such statements overlook the immense contributions made by doctors across all sectors and risk unfairly stigmatizing thousands of candidates who compete solely on merit. Judicial observations carry enormous authority and can influence both public opinion and policy. Therefore, it is essential that issues affecting thousands of NEET-SS aspirants are examined with full appreciation of the facts, existing legal framework, and the consequences for equality and merit in a national examination system," it further said.

Pointing out that the continued uncertainty has placed thousands of aspiring Super-Specialists in professional and personal limbo, the release further mentioned that every delay affects career progression, training schedules, institutional planning, and ultimately the availability of highly trained specialists for patients across the country.

The aspirants have urged the State of Tamil Nadu to surrender the seats in compliance with 29th May 2026 Orders and DGHS/MCC to resume counselling immediately without further delay. 

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, the President of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), Dr. D Srinath, said, "The current deadlock over NEET-SS counselling is taking a massive toll on the mental peace and career timelines of thousands of super-specialist aspirants. We cannot have a system where rules are twisted post-examination. We stand firmly by the demand: 'One Exam, One Merit List, One Standard for All. The state of Tamil Nadu must comply with the Supreme Court's May 29th directives regarding seat surrender, and the MCC must restart counselling immediately. We cannot afford to let precious DM and MCh seats go to waste."

Also Read: NEET SS 2025: Supreme Court Directs Tamil Nadu to Surrender 151 Seats to All India Quota