133 MBBS Seats vacant: KEA moves SC Seeking Second Stray Counselling Round
Bengaluru: Taking up the issue of 133 vacant MBBS Seats, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has recently approached the Supreme Court and sought directions upon the Central Government to allow the State to hold a second round of stray counselling.
While the matter is likely to be heard on October 30, the classes for the first-year MBBS courses have already started a month ago. The deadline for MBBS admission closed on September 30.
A total number of 11,020 medical seats were allotted to Karnataka this year. KEA, which is the authority in charge of seat allotment process in Karnataka, conducted four rounds of NEET Counselling.
These four rounds of counselling also included the mop-up and stray vacancy round and the process was completed on September 30, 2023, the admission deadline prescribed by the National Medical Commission.
Even though the vacant seats generally get filled up in the stray vacancy round, this year, 133 management quota seats remained vacant even after the stray counseling.
Also Read: MBBS Admissions Beyond September 30 are Invalid: NMC warns all the states
As per the latest media report by The Hindu, based on the demands by the MBBS aspirants and the managements of the private medical colleges, KEA decided to hold a second stray vacancy round for the remaining seats and wrote to the Union Government seeking permission for the same. The Daily adds that KEA has now approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to allow Karnataka to hold a second round of stray counselling to fill up these vacant seats.
Commenting on the matter, the Executive Director of KEA, S. Ramya told the daily, "This year a high number of management quota medical seats have remained unfilled after the stray vacancy round. Due to the high cost of fees and various other issues, many students did not opt for management quota seats in the initial rounds of seat allotment. But now students are interested as these are the only seats available. So we have approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to conduct a second round of stray seat counselling."
However, the MBBS aspirants are worried over the fact that the NMC guidelines make it mandatory to complete the MBBS admission process within September 30, 2023, and accordingly, the classes started on 1st October in the medical colleges across the State. Therefore, the MBBS aspirants are worried about the classes that have already been missed.
Speaking about this, one of the aspirants from Bengaluru told The Hindu, "At the initial rounds of NEET counselling I was waiting for a government quota seat and in the stray vacancy round I expected a private quota seat, but to no avail. Now the only option is to opt for a management quota seat. Now KEA has approached the Supreme Court and any further delay in seat allotment will lead to loss of classes, as classes have already begun a month ago."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that around 2000 MBBS seats are likely remain vacant this year due to the mismanagement of the counselling process and the violation of MBBS admission guidelines.
Among these, 1500 MBBS seats remained unfilled during the counselling process and another 600 MBBS admissions are likely to be cancelled as they were either made after the admission deadline i.e. September 30, or those seats were filled at the institute-level, which NMC had earlier barred.
Previously, taking note of the fact that several states were conducting undergraduate MBBS Counselling beyond the cut-off date, the Apex Medical Commission had issued a warning to the stakeholders and reiterated that all MBBS admissions must be completed within September 30 of the concerned academic year.
NMC further clarified that admissions beyond the cut-off date shall be considered invalid. The Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of NMC also issued a notice and referred to the Supreme Court order dated 18.01.2016, where the Apex Medical Body had approved the time schedule for processing of scheme as well as admission in Undergraduate, Postgraduate as well as Super-Speciality medical and dental Courses, which was framed after consulting all the States/ Union Territories, Govt. Of India and other concerned parties.
