The Delhi High Court has refused interim relief to two Army doctors seeking permission to apply for and appear in the NEET PG 2026 examination while their challenge to the revised eligibility criteria under the Training and Professional Progression Rules for Medical/Non-Technical Officers of the Armed Forces Medical Services, 2025 is pending before the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT).

A Division Bench of Justices Mini Pushkarna and Vinod Kumar dismissed the writ petitions challenging the AFT's orders refusing interim relief, holding that merely because the petitioners have questioned the validity of the 2025 Rules, no ground is made out to permit them to appear in the examination as an interim measure.

The Court observed that granting such relief would, in effect, suspend the operation of the 2025 Rules even though their validity is yet to be finally adjudicated.

The petitioners, Major Jayati Chandra and Major Eshaan Segan, contended that under the 2018 Training Rules, Short Service Commission (SSC) officers were eligible to apply for postgraduate medical courses between four and ten years of service.

They challenged Rule 7.2 of the 2025 Rules, which reduced the eligibility window for SSC officers from 4–10 years to 4–7 years, and sought interim permission to appear in NEET PG 2026, pointing out that the last date to submit applications was June 30, 2026.

Rejecting the plea, the High Court noted that the petitioners had entered service in 2017 and 2018 respectively and had become eligible to take the NEET PG examination after completing four years of service.

“Petitioners had time from the years 2022 and 2023 respectively, to sit for the NEET PG Examination…he petitioners herein have not been able to secure a seat in the NEET PG Course, either due to their personal choice and not applying earlier or on account on their failure in the examination process,” it noted.

The Court further observed that the substantive challenge is already listed before the AFT on August 28, 2026 and if the petitioners ultimately succeed, they would still remain eligible to appear for the NEET PG examination until 2028 under the earlier regime.

As such, the Court dismissed the writ petitions.

Appearance: Mr. Prateek Arora, Adv for Petitioner; Mr. Kartik Sharma, GP for UOI Major Anis Muralidhar (Army) Dr. Vijendra Singh Mahndiyan, CGSC with Ms. Apurva Singh, Adv. with Major A.S. Buttar for Respondents

Case Title: Major Jayati Chandra v. UoI

Case no.: W.P.(C) 8370/2026

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