The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has informed the Supreme Court that 95,913 additional candidates have become eligible for NEET-PG 2025 counselling following the reduction of the qualifying cut-off percentile, and cautioned that any judicial interference at this stage would directly impact these candidates.
A bench of Justices P. S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe is hearing a plea challenging the sharp reduction in qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG admissions for the 2025-26 academic session.
In an affidavit filed before the Court, NBEMS stated:
“It is ex-facie apparent that pursuant to the lowering of cut off, 95,913 additional candidates have now become eligible to participate in the counselling for NEET PG 2025.”
The Board submitted that it had no role in the decision to reduce the cut-off, asserting that the matter falls within the exclusive domain of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The qualifying percentile for NEET-PG was reduced after over 18,000 postgraduate medical seats remained vacant across the country.
Under the revised criteria:
- General category cut-off was reduced from 50 percentile to 7 percentile
- Reserved category cut-off was reduced from 40 percentile to 0 percentile
This change enables candidates with extremely low scores — including those with negative marks (up to –40 out of 800) — to participate in the third round of counselling.
The plea, filed by Harisharan Devgan, Dr Saurav Kumar, Dr Lakshya Mittal and Dr Akash Soni, contends that the drastic reduction in the qualifying percentile violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
On February 4, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Union Government, NBEMS, NMC and other authorities seeking their responses.
NBEMS has argued that altering the process at this stage would adversely affect the newly eligible candidates who are now entitled to participate in counselling pursuant to the revised criteria.
The matter remains pending before the Court.
