The Supreme Court has issued a notice on a petition requesting the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to conduct a fresh AIQ Round III of NEET-PG 2024 counselling. The plea argues that seat blocking occurred due to delays in completing the second round of state counselling in Madhya Pradesh. A bench comprising Justices BR Gavai and K Vinod Chandran passed the order after hearing Senior Advocate K Parmeswar, who contended that the delay led to fewer seats in AIQ Round III, resulting in candidates receiving lower subject category seats. The petitioners have sought an opportunity to participate in stray counselling.
The petition, filed by three NEET-PG 2024 candidates, seeks the cancellation and fresh conduct of AIQ Round III counselling. It also requests a fourth round for seats blocked by candidates from states where Round II of state counselling remained incomplete. Highlighting irregularities in AIQ Round III, the petitioners demand an option for eligible candidates to register for the NEET-PG 2024 stray round. They argue that the delays violated the Supreme Court’s timeline for NEET seat allocation set in the Anjana Chari case.
During today’s hearing, Senior Advocate K Parmeswar, representing the petitioners, explained that NEET-PG counselling follows a structured sequence, where state rounds must begin only after the corresponding AIQ rounds are completed, as AIQ seats are more in demand. The correct order is AIQ Round I, followed by State Round I, then AIQ Round II, followed by State Round II, and so forth.
It was submitted that while Round II was completed in all states except Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan sought an extension from MCC, but Madhya Pradesh did not. As a result, AIQ Round III commenced before MP Round II was concluded. The impact of this delay was then outlined.
“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)
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