NEET-PG : Supreme Court Issues Directions To Prevent Seat-Blocking; Mandates Pre-Counselling Fee Disclosure By Colleges

The Supreme Court issued a slew of directions regarding the conduct of counselling for NEET-PG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test- Post Graduate) to tackle the malpractices of seat-blocking for admissions to post-graduate medical courses.The bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan was considering the issue of large-scale blocking of seats during the Medical Admissions/ counselling procedure for NEET PG exams. The following key directions were issued by the Court : (i) Implement a Nationally synchronized counselling calendar to align AIQ and State rounds and prevent seat blocking across systems. (ii) Mandate Pre-Counselling Fee Disclosure by all private / deemed universities, detailing tuition, hostel, caution deposit, and miscellaneous charges (iii) Establish a Centralized Fee Regulation Framework under the National Medical Commission (NMC) (iv) Permit upgrade windows post-round 2 for admitted candidates to shift to better seats without reopening counselling to new entrants(v) Publish raw scores, answer keys and normalization formulae for transparency in multi-shift NEET-PG exams. (vi) Enforce strict penalties for seat blocking including forfeiture of security deposit, disqualification from future NEET-PG exams (for repeat offenders), blacklisting of complicit colleges. (vii) Implement Aadhaar-based seat tracking to prevent multiple seat holdings and misrepresentation (viii) Hold state authorities and institutional DMEs accountable under contempt or disciplinary action for rule or schedule violations. (ix) Adopt a Uniform Counselling Conduct Code across all States for standard rules on eligibility, mop-up rounds, seat withdrawal, and grievance timelines(x) Set up a third-party oversight mechanism under NMC for annual audits of counselling data, compliance, and admission fairnessIn the judgment, authored by Justice JB Pardiwala, concerns were expressed about the practice of seat-blocking."At the outset, it is to be noted that the NEET-PG counselling process was conceived as a transparent, merit-based national mechanism for allocating postgraduate medical seats. However, over time, it has come under increasing scrutiny for facilitating widespread seat blocking. This malpractice distorts the actual availability of seats, fosters inequity among aspirants, and often reduces the process to one governed more by chance than merit. Seat blocking is not merely an isolated wrongdoing – it reflects deeper systemic flaws rooted in fragmented governance, lack of transparency, and weak policy enforcement. Although regulatory bodies have introduced disincentives and technical controls, the core challenges of synchronization, real-time visibility, and uniform enforcement remain largely unaddressed. Achieving a truly fair and efficient system will require more than policy tweaks; it demands structural coordination, technological modernization, and robust regulatory accountability at both State and Central levels.Seat blocking in NEET-PG counselling occurs when candidates temporarily accept seats, only to abandon them later after securing more preferred options. This leads to those seats remaining unavailable in earlier rounds and opening up only in later stages, disadvantaging higher-ranked aspirants, who may have already committed to less preferred choices. Delays in state counselling, last-minute seat additions or deletions, and lack of coordination between quotas worsen the issue. As a result, lower-ranked candidates can secure better seats by taking risks, while merit-based selection is undermined."What Led To The Present Litigation? The above directions were issued in a challenge by the State of UP and Director General of Medical Education & Training, Lucknow, U.P, to an order passed by the Allahabad High Court in 2018The High Court, in a writ petition, was dealing with the concerns raised by NEET PG aspirants from the academic years 2017-2018. The grievance of the aspirants was that candidates who had already been allotted seats in the first and second rounds of counselling were again permitted to appear in the mop-up round. It was alleged that a number of seats in the Radiology course were available in the mop-up round and were allotted to candidates who were less meritorious than the writ petitioners/aspirants, including those who had already participated in the earlier rounds of counselling. The High Court then passed the following directions : (1) Director General to give compensation to the writ petitioners of Rs.10 Lakhs each within 4 weeks from date of the order ; (2) Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Government of U.P., Lucknow to take this fact into consideration of large-scale blocking of seats and come out with a foolproof admission procedure, which would eliminate such blockage of seats and ensure that maximum number of seats are filled up in the first and second round of counseling; (3) Principal Secretary to hold an inquiry into the circumstances of diluting the admission...

NEET-PG : Supreme Court Issues Directions To Prevent Seat-Blocking; Mandates Pre-Counselling Fee Disclosure By Colleges

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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