NMC grants 777 additional PG medical seats to 125 medical colleges after appeals, 76 rejected

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has approved 777 additional postgraduate seats for 125 medical colleges. At the same time, it rejected the appeals of 76 colleges and sent 12 cases back to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) for further review.

This information was shared in the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel. She informed that so far, 162 Letters of Disapproval (LoDs) have been issued by MARB due to reasons such as incomplete documents, lack of proper infrastructure, shortage of clinical material (patients), and issues related to faculty attendance recorded through AEBAS.

After receiving these disapproval letters, 215 medical colleges filed first appeals before the NMC under Section 28(5) of the NMC Act, 2019. Out of these, 213 appeals were heard by the Appellate Committee. Following the review, 125 colleges were granted 777 additional seats, while 76 colleges were rejected. The appeals of 12 colleges were sent back to MARB for further review.

The Minister was responding to a series of questions raised by parliament member Dr M Thambidurai who sought to know the number of PG medical seats for 2025-26 for which Medical Assessment and Rating Board/National Medical Commission (MARB/NMC) issued Letter of Permission/Letter of Disapproval (LoP/LoD), with LoP–LoD breakup and State/college details, the number and grounds of LoDs issued and the number of LoD-recipient colleges filed First Appeals under Section 28(5) and how many were heard, accepted, rejected or referred back, with sanctioned seats and institution names.

He further asked about the seats finally added to the NEET-PG 2025-26 matrix, whether counselling included seats without LoPs; and whether timelines, audits or reforms are planned to ensure transparency and timely approvals

In response, the Minister said that the NMC granted a total of 8416 additional PG medical seats for the academic year 2025-26. As per the state-wise data, Karnataka received the highest number of new seats, with a total of 1,328 seats granted during the Academic Session 2025–26. This includes 426 seats in government medical colleges and 902 seats in private medical colleges, making it the top state in terms of total seat addition.

Uttar Pradesh received the second highest number of new seats with a total of 1034 seats granted during the Academic Session 2025–26 including 316 seats in government medical colleges and 718 seats in private medical colleges.

"The commission has issued various Public Notices for information of all the stakeholders regarding the updation of PG seat Matrix to include the additional seats granted by NMC for the counselling process," said the Minister.

The State-wise details of seats allotted to medical colleges in the Academic year 2025-26 across the country:

The Minister further stated that the commission has informed that online applications are invited for the starting/ increase of undergraduate and postgraduate seats across the country. Letters of Permission (LoP) and Letters of Disapproval (LoD) are issued after following the due process in accordance with the PGMSR, 2023 and other applicable National Medical Commission regulations and norms.

"As on date, 162 LoDs have been issued by Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) on the grounds of insufficient documents and inadequate infrastructure, clinical material, Faculty attendance on AEBAS. Following the issuance of LoDs, 215 medical colleges filed first appeals before the NMC under Section 28(5) of the NMC Act, 2019. Of these, 213 appeals were heard by the Appellate Committee. As a result, 777 additional seats were granted to 125 medical colleges, while the appeals of 76 medical colleges were rejected. The appeals of 12 medical colleges were referred to the MARB, NMC," added the data.

Also read- NMC updates PG medical seat matrix to 58,400, directs medical colleges to verify