NEET-PG 2021: SC Rejects Pleas For Another Round Of Counselling To Fill Vacant Seats

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions seeking another round of counselling to fill the vacant All India Quota seats in NEET-PG 2021.

A bench of Justice M R Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose observed that eight-nine rounds of counselling had already been held and the decision of the Centre not to hold another round of counselling was not arbitrary but in the interest of medical education and public health.

The bench observed that most of the 1,456 vacant seats were in non-clinical courses and that “students cannot still pray for admissions for those seats remaining vacant after approximately one year of the academic session and eight or nine rounds of counselling”.

“When the current admission of NEET 2021 is already behind time schedule and even after conducting eight-nine rounds of counselling, still some seats which are mainly non-technical courses have remained vacant and thereafter when a conscious decision is taken by the Union government and the medical council not to conduct a further special stray round of counselling, it cannot be said that the same is arbitrary,” it observed.