KEA stays NEET PG Counselling after In-service doctors reach HC seeking more seats

Bengaluru: The counselling for Postgraduate medical admission in Karnataka has come to a halt since the Karnataka High Court has stayed the process while considering a plea by In-service doctors who sought an increase in the number of reserved seats.

While considering the matter, the HC bench passed an interim order and stayed the NEET PG counselling process in Karnataka. As a result, Karnataka Examinations Authority has stopped the counselling process.

Informing the PG medical aspirants about this, the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell of Karnataka issued a statement and mentioned, "Interim order passed today in WP No. 20512/2022 and 20701/2022, the Hon'ble High Court has stayed all further process of counselling and admission to PG courses for the year 2022 and the matter will be called on 20-10-2022 for further consideration. PG counselling is stopped as per the orders of Hon'ble High court."

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The problem began because of the alleged cut in the number of available seats under the In-service quota. As per the recent media report by The Hindu, the number of In-service quota seats for Diplomate of National Board (DNB) and Post Graduation (PG) seats were reduced drastically for the second year in a row. When the State's share for DNB seats is 114, only 49 seats have been notified for the academic year 2022-2023. This was after the Government informed about the reduction of In-service quota PG seats by 192 seats.

In case of DNB seats, the National Board of Examinations (NBE) allotted 228 seats for Karnataka and these seats are to be distributed equally between the In-service doctors and the All-India quota students.

While the State has reserved 114 DNB seats for the In-service quota, in case there are inadequate eligible in-service doctors, these seats can be re-distributed to doctors who are not employed with the Government. However, the daily adds that the seats have already been reduced by 65 seats by the Government and the aspirants are resenting the same. Upset with this, the aspirants were considering to approach the High Court and challenge the Government's decision.

Meanwhile, following an outrage in the Assembly, the State Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. K Sudhakar urged the Union Government for getting the seats back. However, by that time, NBE had already converted those seats into national quota seats and allotted them to students actoss India.

Speaking to the daily about this matter, an aspirant told the daily, "While Tamil Nadu uses every seat allotted to them, it is unfortunate that in Karnataka, the government seems keen to please the Union Government and private colleges, betraying the interests of aspirants. We do not understand why they cut the number of these seats. If there are not enough eligible in-service doctors, the remaining seats can be re-distributed to non-service doctors."

Times Now adds that meanwhile, the In-service doctors filed a plea before the HC bench and sought an increase in the number of seats reserved for the In-service quota. While considering the matter, the HC bench decided to stay the NEET PG Counselling 2022 in Karnataka, where the Karnataka Examinations Authority conducts the process.

Accordingly, KEA stopped the counselling and it is only after the HC bench takes a call on the matter that the revised schedule and seat matrix shall be announced for Karnataka PGET 2022 candidates for Medical and Dental admissions.

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