NEET PG 2024- Supreme Court junks Plea Seeking Fresh AIQ Round 3
Supreme Court of India
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has today dismissed the plea seeking direction to the authorities to conduct the All India Quota Round 3 Counselling of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 examination afresh.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a group of postgraduate medical aspirants had approached the Apex Court bench arguing that due to the clash in the counselling schedule for AIQ and State Quota since a lot of candidates from the State Quota who were otherwise not eligible to register for AIQ Round III, got a chance to register and block a seat in AIQ Round III when the State Round II Counselling opened.
Therefore, the candidates had the option to choose between the best option and leave the AIQ seat if they were getting a better seat in the State Round of counselling. They argued that this situation caused prejudice to them as they were deprived of the seats that were blocked by the candidates from the States whose Round II did not commence earlier.
Recently issuing notice to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), which is in charge of conducting the AIQ Counselling, the Supreme Court had listed the matter for further hearing on February 7, 2025.
Also Read: NEET PG candidates Move Supreme Court Seeking Cancellation of MCC AIQ Round 3
During the hearing of the case today i.e. on 07.02.2025, the top court bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K. Vinod Chandran emphasized that allowing three students at this stage could set a precedent, leading to similar requests from more candidates in the future. Accordingly, the bench upheld the existing counselling process for the NEET PG 2024 admissions.
The main grievance of the petitioners was that that they were not allowed a fair opportunity to participate in the AIQ Round III of the NEET PG Counselling, which violates their fundamental rights, particularly under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
They argued that the act of the MCC to conduct the AIQ Round III counselling before the completion of State Round II for all the States was also inconsistent with the schedule of NEET PG counselling laid down by the Supreme Court in Dr. Ashish Ranjan and Others vs Union of India and Others.
In their plea, the petitioner argued that "The seats blocked by them were not available to the other candidates including the Petitioners. If the AIQ Round III would have been conducted after the State round II counselling for all states was concluded, a group of candidates would not have gotten an undue advantage of blocking a seat in AIQ Round III and leaving it later while participating in State Round II."
They had also contended that the seats blocked by the candidates from the States, would have been allocated to other meritorious candidates, who would have otherwise got that seat.
