NEET-PG 2025 : Supreme Court Issues Notice On PIL Against Reduction In NEET Cut-Off Percentile

The Supreme Court today issued notice on a public interest litigation challenging the decision of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences to reduce the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26.

A bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe will hear the matter on Friday, February 6^th, 2026.

The petition assails the notice dated January 13 issued by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences reducing the qualifying cut-off. The petitioners contend the cut-off has been lowered to abnormally low levels, including zero and negative percentiles.

The petitioners contend that the reduction of qualifying standards for postgraduate medical education is arbitrary and violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The plea states that lowering the cut-off compromises patient safety, public health and the integrity of the medical profession. It argues that the decision, taken primarily to fill vacant seats, abolishes merit as a criterion and reduces a competitive examination to a mere administrative formality.

The petition adds that medicine directly implicates human life, bodily integrity and dignity, and that institutionalising dilution of professional standards in such a field is impermissible.

The petitioners have also argued that dilution of merit at the postgraduate level runs contrary to the statutory mandate of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.

The petition has been filed through AoR Neema, with the assistance of Advocates Satyam Singh Rajput and Adarsh Singh

Case no. – Diary No. 3085/2026

Case title – Harisharan Devgan v. Union of India