NEET PG 2023: Doctors Allege Seat Blocking, Urge Health Minister to Halt AIQ Round 3 Counselling

New Delhi: Alleging seat blocking scam in the ongoing counselling for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) counselling, the Maharashtra Chapter of the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors' Network (IMA-JDN) has requested the authorities to bring a temporary halt to the All India Quota Round 3 counselling.

Writing to the Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the association has urged that the counselling should be halted till the time all states conduct their Round 2 & share the data of students who joined in the State Round 2 with MCC. The doctors have argued that this must be done to ensure that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) removes the names of these candidates from taking a seat in the All India Round 3.

In the letter addressed to the Union Health Minister, the association alleged that "there is massive seat blocking going on due to States not following MCC schedule for NEET PG counselling 2023" and pointed out that this is in direct contravention of Supreme Court Order issued last year, when the Apex court had directed that All India Round 3 should happen only after States conduct their Round 2 and share their data with MCC.

Medical Dialogues had last year reported that in order to dismiss the gap between the State and All-India Quota counselling for NEET PG Examination, the Supreme Court had directed all the States and Union Territories to complete the second round of counselling within November 16, 2022.

The States were further directed by the Apex Court to submit the data in this regard to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and following this, the Mop-up counselling shall be conducted, the top court bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice Hima Kohli had ordered back then.

Also Read: SC directs States, UTs to complete 2nd Round of NEET PG Counselling by November 16

Referring to this, IMA JDN Maharashtra mentioned in their letter that the States are not following the MCC schedule for NEET PG Counselling 2023 and further mentioned that "...this is in direct contravention of Supreme court orders & contempt petition of 289 of 2022 and 671 of 2022 that All India Round 3 should happen only after States conduct their round 2 and share their data with MCC."

"MCC has also directed the states to share the data & that MCC will also share its data with the states, but this seems to not happen which is resulting in heavy seat blocking and cut off serving which has increased, whereas the secular trends are of cutoff dropping every year because of new seats given by GOI," the association further mentioned in the letter.

In the letter, the doctors further pointed out that some candidates participate in two state quotas one by domicile and one by UG MBBS and argued that this practice results in the candidate blocking 3 seats at once (one All India seat & 2 State seats). 

"Such a candidate does not take any of the seats allotted to him/her and pushes these seats in the further rounds, instead of a deserving candidate getting the said blocked seat in that round," the letter further mentioned.

The doctors added that there is no clarity if the candidates who joined seats in State Round 2 will be allowed in AIQ Round 3 and if such candidates are allowed it is not clear if the States will remove those students who will be allotted seats in AIQ Round 3 from their joined State Round 2 seats and disallow them in State Round 3 counselling.

"The MCC staff is inaccessible, they do not reply to emails, the helpline number is of no use because they are there only to clarify doubts about rules," mentioned the letter.

The association also referred to the fact that many states are lagging behind in their rounds and added, "For example Bihar, Chhattisgarh,Tamil nadu & 2 more states have just finished their round one ie Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh It is also seen that these states have the most number of candidates, the most seats in Government colleges & private colleges which will eventually lead to most of their candidates blocking all India round 3 seats & returning to their state counselling without tearing any consequences of such illegal and arbitrary seat blocking in AIQ R3," stated the letter.

"Furthermore MCC had increased the resignation date for just 5 hours on lath Sept 2023, how is one person supposed to reach his college aeo-soo krn away in just the matter of 5 hours?" questioned the doctors.

Referring to these issues, the doctors urged the Health Minister to bring a temporary halt to the all India Round 3 counselling till the time all states conduct their round 2 and share Round 2 data with MCC, so that MCC can remove the candidates who joined in State Round 2 from taking a seat in All India Quota Round 3.

"Such candidates are spoilt for choice and hence they will push the seats into stray where many of the mid rankers are unable to participate due to the rules stated by MCC. Due to failure to comply to MCC rules and no sharing of data in between states and MCC there have been instances where a candidate is getting allotted 6 seats and still not taking on and wishing to proceed to further rounds. These seats are spoilt for choice which results in loss of mid rankers students who have no seats in their hands," the association mentioned in the letter.

"We urge the Ministry and the counselling authority to bring a hold on AIQ R3 whose results are scheduled to be published tomorrow i.e.-16th September," the letter further added.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues, the National Council Member of IMA JDN Maharashtra, Dr. Indranil Deshmukh said, "Candidates who have or who will join Round 2 seat of State have already filled choices for All India Round 3. This will lead to severe seat blocking in All India Round 3 by top ranking students who have joined seats in their respective States due to which mid ranking students have to compromise as their college and branch of choice. Since these blocked seats will go to stray round where they are ineligible and where extremely low ranking students will get these precious PG seats, which is completely against merit."

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Karan Juneja, National Standing Committee member of IMA JDN said, "It is indeed a matter of concern and good coordination is essential for a proper counselling process. Round 3 should be halted and the cut-off should be lowered. Concerns of persons with disabilities (pwd )candidates must be considered. Their reserved seats must not be converted to general and cut-off must be reduced so that they are eligible."

Also Read: 47 Doctors debarred from NEET PG Counselling for blocking seats Last year