NMC in-principle approval to shift NEET PG, NEET SS from percentile to rank based merit system: Expert Panel tells SC

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has in principle decided to adopt a rank-based merit system for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) and NEET Super Speciality examinations, doing away with the existing percentile-based format.

Writing to the DGHS on 01.10.2026, the Secretary of NMC informed about this proposal, which is under consideration by the Commission. While the Commission has accorded in-principle approval for the proposed change, a draft regulation in this regard will be issued by NMC shortly for stakeholder comments.

A 12-member expert committee of the Union Government has informed the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe of the NMC's decision on Tuesday (November 3), during the hearing of a plea that challenged the reduction of the cut-off percentile in the NEET PG 2025-2026.

Plea in Supreme Court:

Medical Dialogues had reported that NBE, in a notice dated 13.01.2026, reduced the minimum qualifying percentile cut-off for counselling of the third round of National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2025-2026 for various categories of candidates.

The expert committee's report includes a chronological Summary of actions taken by MCC and Stakeholders in compliance with the directions of the Hon'ble Court, proceedings conducted by the committee in accordance with the Terms of Reference (ToRs), the role of MCC in counselling, roles of NMC, NBEMS, NTA, and State counselling authorities, reforms done in the Counselling Process till the current academic year 2026, issues and suggestions, and proposed reforms in counselling in upcoming years.

Suggestions:

NEET PG & NEET-SS to move from Percentile to Rank-based System:

The report mentioned the NMC's decision to move from Percentile to a rank-based system for admission to PG medical and SS seats. "NMC has informed that the Commission has in principle decided to move from percentile-based qualifying thresholds towards a rank-based merit system for NEET-PG & NEET SS. A draft regulation in this regard will be issued by NMC shortly for stakeholder comments," the panel noted in its report.

"NMC is in process of issuing new regulation, which are yet to be finalized where in only rank-based system for NEET PG & SS counselling will be adopted, no percentile marks will be declared in results, only ranks will be given to the candidates. A Letter dated 01.10.2026 has been written by Secretary, NMC to DGHS informing proposal for changing the existing percentile-based system to a rank-based merit system for NEET-PG and NEET-SS which is under consideration by the Commission. The commission has accorded in-principle approval for the proposed change with a view to address the issues arising from the existing system," the report, while specifying the proposed reforms in counselling in upcoming academic years, mentioned.

It was further mentioned in the report that if, from the next year, a rank-based system is introduced for NEET-PG and NEET-SS, it will reduce the time of counselling.

Other Proposed Changes in Counselling:

The report mentioned that the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is working towards digitalising the whole counselling process with minimum human intervention to ensure transparency and accountability.

MCC plans to conduct meetings with the stakeholders before the start of counselling and after the completion of counselling so that various issues/ glitches can be addressed and the counselling process can be streamlined for the future, as mentioned in the report.

Further, MCC has proposed formulating a mechanism to conduct a comprehensive audit of the existing system of admission through the NEET Counselling to identify the issues and thereafter find practical and implementable solutions for the same.

Meanwhile, referring to the role of NMC, the report said that NMC has been included in the counselling software as one of the stakeholders for direct contribution of seats on the MCC portal for each institute. This has saved time in counselling by ensuring the correctness of seat matrix figures for any institute. The error rate has become 'NIL' for duplication of any seat in any institute.

For the next academic year, the report said that NMC will contribute the seats on the MCC portal well in time before the actual date of commencement of counselling for any course.

Addressing future reforms by NBEMS/NTA, the panel mentioned in the report that NBE has proposed that in future the result will be rank-based and no percentile will be declared for any candidate. NMC has yet to finalise the regulation of the proposal.

After examining the issue of vacant postgraduate medical seats, MCC has suggested that the Fee Fixation Committee/ Competent authority of the State may look into the matter that there should be a difference in the fee structure of Clinical and Non-Clinical branches. The Fee of non-clinical branches may be a little less so that the candidates feel encouraged to accept the seat and thus wastage of medical seats may be prevented.

Fee Fixation Committee /competent authority may consider that candidates accepting pre and paraclinical subjects should be exempted from Bond to avoid seat vacancies in these courses, MCC has suggested, as mentioned in the report.

While MCC acknowledged that percentile is reduced by competent authorities in consonance with the stakeholders depending on the number of vacant seats, it suggested that the sanctity of NEET examinations should be maintained and minimum qualifying standards in postgraduate medical education should not be diluted to the extent of permitting candidates with grossly inadequate or negative performance to become eligible for admission. It said that the significance of competitive examinations should not be reduced to an administrative formality.

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