SC Notice to Centre on Plea Challenging NBEMS's Decision to Reduce NEET PG Cut-off Percentile

A two-judge Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe issued notices to the Centre, the NBEMS, the National Medical Commission and other respondents, and posted the matter for hearing on Friday.

The court was hearing a plea filed by social worker Harisharan Devgan and doctors Saurav Kumar, Lakshya Mittal and Akash Soni, which contended that the reduction in cut-offs violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The petition argued that eligibility criteria could not be altered after the commencement of the selection process, as candidates prepared and competed based on the cut-offs originally notified. It said aspirants had made career decisions relying on the declared standards.

The plea further submitted that postgraduate medical education could not be treated as a commercial exercise and that regulatory authorities were duty-bound to prevent dilution of academic standards.

The challenge follows the NBEMS decision to substantially lower qualifying percentiles across all categories for NEET-PG 2025–26, citing large vacancies in postgraduate medical seats.

With over 18,000 PG medical seats remaining vacant nationwide, the Board revised the qualifying percentile for reserved categories from 40 to zero, enabling candidates with scores as low as minus 40 out of 800 to participate in the third round of counselling. For the general category, the cut-off was reduced from 50 percentile to seven percentile.