Will return unfilled NEET SS 2025 seats to Tamil Nadu, cutoff reduction under consideration: Centre tells SC
New Delhi: The Union Government informed the Supreme Court that it has decided to return all unfilled NEET SS 2025 seats to Tamil Nadu, which had been transferred to the All India Quota for counselling.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati on Thursday told a bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe that the government would also consider reducing the qualifying percentile to help fill the remaining seats. The Centre will inform the court about the extent of the reduction on Tuesday (September 8).
Legal dispute
The pending legal issue over the 151 vacant super speciality seats in Tamil Nadu halted the NEET-SS 2025 counselling for months.
On July 28, 2026, the Supreme Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to revert the unfilled 151 NEET SS seats to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) by July 29, 2026 and asked the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to complete the NEET SS 2025 counselling process within two weeks.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that following the direction issued by the Supreme Court, the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers approached the apex court seeking a modification of its order. The Association had requested the Court to direct that all unfilled in-service super speciality seats should be returned to the State of Tamil Nadu if the qualifying percentile is reduced after the second round of counselling.
The Apex Court also ordered the second round of NEET SS counselling to 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.
Contesting this part of the order, the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association filed an interlocutory application seeking its modification. According to the petitioners, these seats form part of the State's 50% reservation for in-service doctors under G.O. Ms. No. 462 dated November 7, 2020, a policy whose constitutional validity was upheld by the Supreme Court in Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association v. Union of India (2021).
When the matter was taken up on August 24, the Union, through Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, apprised the bench that out of the 151 seats transferred by the State of Tamil Nadu, approximately 40 seats remained vacant.
Based on this input, Senior Advocate P. Wilson (for the Officers Association) urged that all 40 in-service seats be returned to the State of Tamil Nadu, as 111 candidates were awaiting a reduction in the qualifying percentile.
Following this submission, the top court bench asked the Union Government to decide whether the qualifying percentile for the Super Speciality admissions should be reduced.
Recent hearing
On September 3, Bhati informed the bench that the Centre had agreed to return all the remaining vacant seats to Tamil Nadu. She said the government would hold another round of discussions to decide the extent of reduction in the qualifying percentile. The Centre would then provide its decision in writing to the court by Tuesday.
"Today, in all likelihood, we are going to hold another round of meetings. What will be the quantum of reduction of percentile is a call yet to be taken. Your Lordships may record my statement. We will give all of the remaining Tamil Nadu seats back to them. Mylords initially said and then Mr Wilson's application said all. We will give all what is unfilled for Tamil Nadu. What Tamil Nadu can't fulfil by reduction of percentage, it will give it back," Bhati said as quoted by Live Law.
She, however, said that the matter can't be disposed of since the larger issue of whether there can be reservation in super speciality survives. She clarified that the Union's stand is that there can't be reservation, not even for in-service candidates.
Welcoming the Centre's decision, Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Tamil Nadu, and P Wilson stated that the seats should return to the state as they formed part of Tamil Nadu's in-service quota.
The court passed no order since Bhati said she would give in writing on the decision taken by the government by Tuesday (September 8).
The association had previously challenged the "premature diversion" of 151 vacant Super Speciality seats reserved for the in-service candidates to All India Quota. It sought protection of the State's in-service reservation policy till a final decision was taken on the reduction of the NEET-SS qualifying percentile.
The association submitted in its plea that Tamil Nadu had earmarked 219 super speciality seats for the in-service candidates for the academic year 2025-2026 and after completing two rounds of counselling, only 68 candidates had joined.
"Over 111 in-service candidates remain on the waiting list and are legitimately anticipating reduction of the qualifying percentile in accordance with the consistent practice followed during previous academic sessions. A substantial number of these candidates narrowly missed the existing qualifying percentile and would become eligible if the qualifying percentile is reduced/relaxed," submitted the association, arguing that these candidates possessed a legitimate expectation that they would be considered for admission in the in-service category.
Also read- TN NEET SS inservice seats: SC seeks Centre's response on cutoff reduction plea
Meanwhile, a representation had been submitted before the government authorities seeking an additional round of NEET SS 2025 counselling. Highlighting that around 1700 super-speciality seats were lying vacant, the doctors under the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) had urged the Union Health Minister Shri J P Nadda to conduct an additional round (Round 3) of the NEET SS 2025 counselling to ensure optimum utilisation of the unfilled seats.
They argued that leaving these super-speciality seats vacant would result in the loss of valuable training opportunities for the current academic session. It would also result in a shortage of trained Super-Specialists in the country, they pointed out.
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