NEET PG: Chhattisgarh HC caps institutional quota at 50 percent for PG medical admissions
Chhattisgarh High Court
Raipur: Capping the institutional quota of postgraduate medical seats in government and private medical colleges, the Chhattisgarh High Court recently ruled that 50 percent of of these seats will be reserved under institutional preference, while the remaining will be filled through open and merit-based admissions.
In its order, the HC Division bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Singa and Justice BD Guru clarified that the institutional quota seats will remain reserved for candidates who completed their MBBS course from the medical colleges within Chhattisgarh, recognised by the National Medical Commission (NMC), or those currently in service. The Court said that admissions to these PG medical seats will be granted solely based on merit.
Further, it added that the remaining 50% seats will fall under the open category and will be filled based on a state-level merit list accessible to all eligible candidates, and institutional quota reservation will not apply here.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the HC bench issued the clarification after an application was filed in this regard by the State Government seeking clarification of directions issued by the Division Bench in an earlier order dated November 20, 2025.
The counsel for the State, Additional Advocate General Shashank Thakur, requested the court to modify the instructions to ensure that candidates who obtained their degrees from Chhattisgarh-based colleges or Ayush University receive preference under the State quota.
On the other hand, the Counsels for petitioner Dr. Samriddhi Dubey, Senior counsel Rajeev Srivastava and counsel Sandeep Dubey, argued that no further modification was required. It was submitted that the Court had already aligned its decision with the Tanvi Behl case ruled upon by the Supreme Court.
The petitioner, a permanent resident of Chhattisgarh, had challenged the Chhattisgarh Medical Postgraduate Admission Rules, 2021. She completed MBBS from a Salem, Tamil Nadu-based medical college after being allotted a seat through the All India Quota.
Even though she qualified for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate 2025 examination with an All India Rank of 75,068, she found herself at a disadvantage due to the 2021 rules.
According to the old rules, the first preference was given to those who graduated from the medical colleges in Chhattisgarh, and only if seats remained vacant, the seats were offered to residents who studied outside the State.
Filing the plea before the High Court, the petitioner argued that these rules created unfair discrimination among students based on where they obtained their degree.
While considering the matter, the HC Division bench observed that the Supreme Court, in the case of Tanvi Behl, held that domicile-based reservation in postgraduate medical courses is impermissible, even though a reasonable degree of institutional preference is allowed.
Accordingly, the Court struck down the discriminatory provisions and issued directions to the State to act according to the ratio laid down by the Apex Court. It specified that if seats under the institutional quota remained vacant, they must be converted to the open category during the mop-up round of counselling.
In its order dated November 20, 2025, the HC bench quashed Rule 11(a) and 11(b) of the 2025 Rules, terming them to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the HC in November 2025, quashed two key provisions - Rule 11 (a) and (b) of the Chhattisgarh Medical Post Graduate Admission Rules, 2025, calling them 'discriminatory and unconstitutional.'
The division bench headed by Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta Guru observed, "While granting admissions, especially to higher and specialised courses, merit must prevail to safeguard educational standards; relaxing merit at such levels under the guise of institutional reservation or domicile reservation would risk compromising critical professional excellence"
"Rule 11(a) and (b) of the Chhattisgarh Medical Post Graduate Admission Rules, 2025 are quashed being ultra vires and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and the State shall not discriminate between the candidates belonging to the categories mentioned in Rule 11(a) and (b) of the Chhattisgarh Medical Post Graduate Admission Rules, 2025," noted the bench.
Subsequently, the State challenged this in the Supreme Court and on 18.12.2025, the Apex Court permitted the State to move the HC bench for clarification regarding the percentage of seats that can be reserved for the institutional quota.
