NEET-PG admission 2025-26: SC to take up petitions against reduction in cut-off on February 23
A bench had on February 6 expressed surprise over unusual reduction in qualifying cut-off percentiles for various categories for admission to NEET-PG 2025-26
The Supreme Court will take up petitions challenging the unusual reduction in qualifying cut-off percentiles for various categories for admission to NEET-PG 2025-26 on February 23.
A bench led by Justice PS Narasimha, which had on February 6 expressed surprise over an unusual reduction in qualifying cut-off percentiles for various categories for admission to NEET-PG 2025-26, on Friday agreed to hear the matter on February 23 after the petitioners’ counsel mentioned it.
Since the Supreme Court has already passed a common order on February 6 in his case, along with two related matters, it would be appropriate for his matter to be heard together with the main NEET-PG case, the petitioners’ counsel submitted.
“We were stunned to see why this method was adopted. These are all regular doctors… This is about standards. The question is whether those standards are being compromised," the court said," a stunned bench had said, directing Centre to explain the rationale behind the decision.
Under the revised criteria categories for admission to NEET-PG 2025-26, the cut-off score for the General Category and EWS is 103 (down from 276 earlier), while for General PwBD, the score was lowered from 255 to 90. For the SC/ST/OBC category, the revised cut-off is minus 40 (earlier 235).
Supreme Court seeks response from NBEMS on NEET-PG cut-off row
The top court had also asked the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to respond to a PIL challenging the decision to lower the qualifying cut-off percentiles for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Post Graduate (NEET-PG) examination and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.
"On one hand, we have to see that seats should not get wasted. At the same time, there is pressure that candidates are not coming, so please reduce the cutoff…Then the argument will be that the standards are being lowered, and the counterargument is that seats are going to waste. So, somewhere there has to be a balance," the bench noted.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati had submitted that the case involves postgraduate seats for which all the candidates are doctors.
On behalf of petitioners Harisharan Devgan and others, senior counsel Gopal Sankarnarayanan had said that marks cannot be relaxed in PG admissions, except for exceptional reasons, and standards needed to be stricter at the postgraduate level.
"The applicable regulation clearly provides that the minimum qualifying standard is the 50th percentile, which is to be determined with reference to the highest marks obtained. You can’t go all the way down to minus 40 percentile," Sankaranarayanan had submitted.
The top court had earlier asked the Union of India, the NBEMS, the National Medical Commission, and others to respond to the petition that said the decision to allow candidates with no demonstrable merit to become eligible for postgraduate medical admissions was arbitrary.
As over 18,000 postgraduate medical seats across India remained vacant, the NBEMS revised the qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025 admissions, drastically reducing them for all the categories.
According to the notice published by NBEMS, the NEET PG cutoff for the General Category and EWS has been reduced to the seventh percentile from 50, while for General PwBD candidates, it has been lowered to five from 45.
Reserved category candidates scoring as low as minus 40 out of 800 are eligible to take part in the third round of counselling for PG medical seats. For the SC/ST/OBC category, the percentile has been reduced from 40 to zero.
Alleging that the drastic cut-off reduction violated Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 21 right to life), the petitioners contended that the eligibility criteria cannot be altered after commencement of the selection process, as aspirants prepared, competed, and made career choices based on the originally notified cut-offs. PG medical education cannot be treated as a commercial exercise, and regulatory authorities are required to prevent dilution of standards, they submitted.
