New Delhi: An expert committee has proposed a new rank-based merit system for admission to post-graduate medical courses, ending the current admission process that follows a percentile-based qualifying system.
In a report given to the Supreme Court, the 12-member committee said the National Medical Commission (NMC) had granted an in-principle approval to the proposal for both the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET-PG) and the National-cum-Entrance Test for Super Specialty (NEET-SS). The report, annexed with an affidavit, said that a draft regulation is expected to be issued shortly for stakeholder consultation.
The report has also underlined several measures, such as reducing fees for non-clinical courses and exempting candidates taking pre-clinical and para-clinical seats from service bonds, to address the recurring problem of vacant post-graduate medical seats.
The committee was set up after the top court’s directions to the Centre on a comprehensive audit of the existing NEET and practical solutions. The Supreme Court is hearing a petition against the Union Health Ministry’s decision to drastically reduce the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025.
A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe has questioned the drastic revision of the qualifying score, now reduced from 276 to 103 for the general category and from 235 to minus 40 for the SC/ST/OBC categories.
When the matter was taken up Tuesday, petitioner’s advocate Satyam Singh Rajput argued that the affidavit does not explain the drastic reduction in qualifying cut-off marks. According to him. there is hardly any change in the admission process.
The Centre’s affidavit, filed in the court Tuesday, acknowledged it is important to maintain standards of postgraduate medical education and that competitive examinations should not be reduced to an administrative formality.
The committee has suggested a lower fee for non-clinical courses, saying this would encourage candidates to take up these seats in this category. It said that that states should also study the disparities in stipends between residents in clinical and non-clinical branches, provide incentives to doctors willing to work in rural areas, and reconsider existing service bond policies.
It has even said that candidates who take pre-clinical and para-clinical subjects should be exempted from service bonds to prevent vacancies in these courses.
The committee has discouraged conducting additional counselling rounds, saying that it increases the overall duration of counselling. It has also identified seat blocking as a major cause of large vacancies at the post-graduate level, and said examination-conducting bodies should explore biometric verification to stop candidates from blocking seats.
The report also touches upon delays in medical counselling, saying the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has already introduced several changes this year to reduce delays and inconvenience to candidates.
As per the revised system, candidates are divided into ‘Freeze’ and ‘Float’ categories depending on whether they wish to retain their allotted seat or seek an upgrade.
Candidates opting for the float option can accept their allotted seat online and apply for upgradation without physically visiting the institution.
In the new counselling system, the process of relieving candidates from their earlier allotted seats, after an upgrade, is now online. Verification of documents will also be online and candidates are required to pay fee only once, at the institute where they ultimately join.
Both NMC and MCC have integrated their counselling portal to eliminate duplication of seats. Earlier, colleges used to give seat details to MCC, which would then verify them manually against NMC data.
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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