NEET PG Admissions deadline extended till January 14, 2023, DGHS informs Madras HC

Chennai: Recently, the Director General of Health Services informed the Madras High Court about its decision of extending the deadline for Post-graduate medical admissions through NEET PG exam until January 14, 2023.

Previously the apex medical body, National Medical Commission had fixed that PG medical admission process should be completed within December 2, 2022.

The submission from DGHS has come while the HC bench comprising Justice CV Karthikeyan was considering petitions filed by two private medical colleges who sought directions to the Selection Committee for sending a list of meritorious candidates from the State rank for filling up the vacant seats.

It was submitted by the private medical colleges that even though NMC had fixed December 2 as the date for completing the admission process, it could not be completed despite no fault of the private medical colleges.

The colleges further alleged in their plea that the Selection Committee had delayed the process of finalizing the results of the mop-up counselling which ultimately messed up the entire schedule of the NEET PG Admissions.

Also Read: Madras HC slams DME for frequent change of counselling rules, orders to pay Rs 2.5 lakh to doctor

Apart from this, the colleges also submitted that even when a stray vacancy counselling had been conducted, the results had been conducted only on December 2 and the authorities had given the students time until 5 pm of the same day for reporting at the concerned colleges.

Referring to this, the colleges mentioned in the plea that due to this, several candidates could not participate in the counselling process and could not even access the results of the stray vacancy round. Several candidates could not complete the payment process even after getting elected.

Therefore, the plea claimed that the merit list of Selection Committee was arbitrary and unreasonable since only high-ranked meritorious candidates had been included in the list, who had already secured admission to other colleges. As a result, the seats in the petitioner colleges were lying vacant. 

Approaching the court, the colleges urged for a direction upon the Selection Committee for releasing the appropriate merit list to ensure that the admission process could be carried out in a smooth manner.

Also Read: Just IN: MCC notifies Special Stray Vacancy Round for NEET PG, releases Schedule

As per the latest media report by Live Law, during the pendency of the case, the petitioners had approached the DGHS requesting to extend the deadline for completing the admission process. The petitioner colleges informed the HC bench that DGHS has already given its nod for extending the admission into All-India Quota seats and requested for making the extension applicable for State Quota seats as well.

Meanwhile, the DGHS under the Union Health Ministry has now informed the Madras High Court orally that it had already extended the deadline for PG medical admission for both AIQ and State Quota seats to January 14, 2023.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that taking cognizance of the vacant PG medical seats, MCC had notified about another Special Stray Vacancy Round for PG seats. While the choice filling and choice locking facility commenced on January 6, 2023, the admission process shall continue until January 14, 2023.

In a previous order dating back to 2016, the Supreme Court had clarified that admissions cannot be made in post-graduate medical courses after May 31 of the concerned academic year. However, the COVID-19 pandemic messed up with the entire academic calendar. In fact, last year NMC had applied to the Supreme Court for its nod for extending the cut-off date for Postgraduate medical admissions for the academic year 2022-2023 until November 25, 2022. Ultimately the process has been extended up to January 14, 2023.

Also Read: NEET PG: SC allows NMC Plea to Extend last date for PG Medical Admissions 2022-2023