The Supreme Court today issued notice on a plea seeking direction to the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to conduct AIQ (All India Quota) Round III of NEET-PG 2024 counselling afresh on the ground that there were instances of seat blocking following delay in completion of 2nd round of state counselling in Madhya Pradesh.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and K Vinod Chandran passed the order upon hearing Senior Advocate K Parmeswar (for petitioners), who argued that due to instances of seat blocking and delay in completion of MP State Round II, there were lesser seats in AIQ Round III and candidates got lower subject category seats. The senior counsel prayed for a chance to the petitioners to participate in stray counselling.
Briefly put, the petition, filed by 3 NEET-PG 2024 candidates, seeks direction to the MCC to cancel the AIQ Round III of NEET-PG 2024 counselling and conduct it afresh. Further, the petitioners seek direction for a 4th round of counselling for leftover seats blocked by candidates from states where Round II of State counselling was not concluded.
Pointing to anomalies in the AIQ Round III, the petitioners additionally seek an option for candidates who were eligible for AIQ Round III to register for the stray round of NEET-PG 2024 counselling. In support of their submissions, they allege violation of the timeline given by the Supreme Court for NEET seat allocation in the Anjana Chari case.
During today’s hearing, Parmeswar, on behalf of the petitioners, explained that the structure of NEET-PG counselling is such that respective state rounds must start only after the respective AIQ rounds are completed, because AIQ seats are more in demand. That means, the sequence is AIQ Round I, State Round I, AIQ Round II, State Round II, so on and so forth.
It was submitted that except in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Round 2 was duly completed in all states. While Rajasthan went to MCC and got an extension, Madhya Pradesh did not do the same and the AIQ Round III began while MP Round 2 was not over. The consequences of the same were explained thus:
As a result, what has happened is, any student in MP who participated in AIQ Round II and occupied seats, when the state round took place, they exited that. Those seats should have ideally been covered in AIQ Round III…but those seats could not come because only after AIQ Round III started did State Round II finish…In Round III, we got lesser seats and subject categories which are down the ladder…ideally, we would have got general medicine, cardiology, etc…today we are given anesthesia, dermatology…”.
Parmeswar further mentioned that since the petitioner-candidates participated and got seats in AIQ Round III, they are not eligible to participate in the stray round, to which the better seats have gone. When it was pointed out that stray round is not over, the bench issued notice to the respondent-authorities and listed the matter on February 7.
Appearance: Senior Advocate K Parmeswar, Advocate Tanvi Dubey and AoR Raghav Sabharwal (for petitioners)