NEET SS: Supreme Court allows DM, MCH, DNB SS candidates to resign from allotted seats

New Delhi: Granting interim relief to eleven National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Super Specialty (NEET-SS) aspirants, the Supreme Court bench has now allowed them to resign from the Doctorate of Medicine (DM), Master of Chirurgiae (MCh) and Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats allocated to them.

Although these doctors had also challenged the amount of penalty imposed by the concerned universities for resigning from their seats, the top court bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and Manoj Mishra has clarified that the answer to the question of such a penalty would be subject to the outcome of the case.

The Supreme Court bench passed the interim order on February 17 while considering the plea by such eleven medical seats who had been allotted seats as per the All India Quota counselling for the NEET Super-Specialty courses.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) had informed the candidates about withdrawal seats and offline registration for NEET SS Counseling 2022-23.

MCC referred to the representations from college and NEET SS candidates to include offline surrender seats in the special mop-up round of NEET SS counselling 2022-23, which is being conducted per the counselling schedule available on the website.

The notice clarified, "Since as per Information Bulletin and counseling policy (FAQ No. 38 of pg. no. 20 i.e., “Can a candidate resign from Round-I or Round-II once he joins the allotted college? Ans.: No, once candidate joins the allotted seat he/she cannot resign. It is pertinent to mention that all admissions should be made online only and candidates should ensure that their Admission Letter has been generated online through the portal provided by MCC of DGHS. Any offline admission letter will be treated as ‘Null & Void’ and will lead to cancellation of seat of candidate”) of NEET SS conducted by MCC does not permit resignation (Offline/Online) mode therefore such seats surrendered by the candidates cannot be included in Special Mop-Up round of NEET SS 2022-23."

Also Read: MCC Withdraws 1 Seat from NEET SS Counselling, issues notice on Offline Registrations

As per the latest media report by Bar and Bench, apart from challenging the norm that students cannot resign from the seats allotted to them, these students had also questioned the penalty issued by the universities for the same.

The counsel for the petitioner students, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan argued before the Apex Court that if the students were allowed to withdraw from their seats at this stage, the vacant seats would not remain unfilled since those seats could be placed in the mop-up rounds.

It was further pointed out by the counsel for the petitioners that in the past years, several mop-up rounds had to be conducted by the authorities for filling up such vacant seats and still several seats remained unfilled.

On the other hand, the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appeared on behalf of the Medical Counselling Committee and she resisted the interim relief prayer of the NEET SS aspirants.

However, after considering the matter, the Supreme Court bench granted relief to the students by allowing them to resign from their seats. The bench also clarified that such vacant seats may also be considered in the mop-up rounds that will be conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee.

Also Read: Can Candidates who secured seats in Previous rounds of NEET Counselling Appear in Mop-up? Supreme Court issues notice