NEET SS 2025: SC tells Centre to reconsider cutoff reduction as around 1800 seats remain vacant
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: Expressing concern over a large number of seats going vacant every year, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union Government to reconsider its decision to not lower the cut-off percentile for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Super Speciality (NEET SS) seats in the current academic year.
This direction was issued by the Apex Court bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe after Additional Solicitor-General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing on behalf of the Centre, said that the Government was willing to conduct a stray vacancy round without lowering the cut-off. She further said that the vacant seats would revert to States like Tamil Nadu.
Case Background:
The plea before the Supreme Court was filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association, which requested the Centre to return 100% of the unfilled in-service seats to the State.
The pending legal issue over the 151 vacant super speciality seats in Tamil Nadu halted the NEET-SS 2025 counselling for months. On July 28, 2026, the Supreme Court of India directed the Tamil Nadu government to revert the unfilled 151 NEET SS seats to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) by July 29, 2026, and asked the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to complete the NEET SS 2025 counselling process within two weeks.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that following the direction issued by the Supreme Court, the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers approached the apex court seeking a modification of its order. The Association had requested the Court to direct that all unfilled in-service super specialty seats should be returned to the State of Tamil Nadu if the qualifying percentile is reduced after the second round of counselling.
Recently, the Union Government informed the Supreme Court about its decision to return all unfilled NEET SS 2025 seats to Tamil Nadu, which had been transferred to the All India Quota for counselling. Further, the Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati had also told a bench of Justice PS Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe that the government would also consider reducing the qualifying percentile to help fill the remaining seats. The Centre Government was supposed to inform the Court about the extent of the reduction on September 8.
Centre Decides to Conduct Stray Vacancy Round without Reducing Cutoff:
According to a recent TOI report, ASG Bhati, appearing for the Centre, informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that after facing severe backlash last year for reducing cut-off percentile to zero for admission to super speciality medical courses, the Government has decided not to reduce the cut-off marks this year.
ASG Bhati told the bench that the decision was arrived at after consultations between all stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), and the National Medical Commission (NMC).
"As per the directions of Supreme Court in the Kevin Joy case (2023), it has been decided to conduct a 'special stray round' by the medical counselling committee for the purpose of filling up the vacant super speciality seats arising out of NEET-SS 2025 counselling without reduction in the percentile criteria prescribed for admission in the said special stray round," Bhati submitted, while placing before the Court a one-page note on the Government's decision.
Around 2,000 Vacant NEET-SS Seats:
At the outset, the counsel for some of the petitioners, Advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, told the bench that around 2,000 seats in medical colleges would remain vacant if there was no reduction in the cut-off percentile.
She further submitted before the Court how the authorities have consistently adopted appropriate measures, including conducting special, mop-up, and stray vacancy rounds, relaxing the eligibility criteria, to ensure super-speciality seats did not remain vacant and to make way for optimum utilisation of the available seats.
Meanwhile, senior counsel P Wilson appeared on behalf of service doctors in Tamil Nadu and submitted before the Court that the 1,800 super-speciality seats remaining vacant included cardiology, neurosurgery and oncology, TOI has reported. The doctors trained in these disciplines manage some of the country's most complex illnesses, he submitted, further arguing that allowing such seats to lapse would waste public investment and deepen the shortage of trained specialists.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Government that the State wanted the vacant seats to completely revert to it. He further urged the Court to lower the cut-off percentile, The Hindu has reported.
Reconsider Decision about cut-off reduction: SC tells Centre
After taking note of these submissions and considering the situation where a substantial number of super-speciality seats may get wasted, the Apex Court bench asked the Centre to reconsider its decision and brief the Court on the next date of hearing. Since the ASG urged the Court to put it in the order, the bench passed a brief order on the issue of reconsideration of the decision.
"Having examined the matter from different perspectives, we are of the opinion that it may be necessary to reconsider the decision for reducing the cut-off percentile," ordered a top court bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe.
"This is rather compelling because a large number of seats have remained unfilled even as of today," the bench observed, while directing additional solicitor-general Aishwarya Bhati to convey its concern to the Union Health Ministry and seek an appropriate decision. The bench has listed the matter for further hearing on September 17, 2026.
Also Read: TN NEET SS inservice seats: SC seeks Centre's response on cutoff reduction plea
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that doctors had urged the Union Health Minister Shri J P Nadda to conduct an additional round (Round 3) of the NEET SS 2025 counselling to ensure optimum utilisation of the unfilled seats.
Submitting a representation to the Union Health Minister, the doctors under the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) mentioned that leaving these super-speciality seats vacant would result in the loss of valuable training opportunities for the current academic session. It would also result in a shortage of trained Super-Specialists in the country, they pointed out.
