Rajasthan HC stays mop-up round for medical, dental seats

The Rajasthan high court has stayed a revised mop-up round proposed by the NEET board to remove discrepancies in counselling for MBBS and BDS seats in medical colleges.

In an oral order the high court asked the NEET board not to go ahead with the revised mop-up round proposed on August 17 and 18 but to hold a second round extension on August 19.

The court observation came on Friday while hearing a petition by some candidates who sought stay on the mop-up round as it would again lead to meritorious students not getting seats in top medical colleges as per merit.

Counsel for the petitioners Blsharma said the court in an oral order asked the government to hold an offline extension round on August 19 so that students would get seats on merit.

The court will again hear the matter on August 19.

Earlier, the NEET Counselling Board 2019 on Friday published the mop-up list of candidates as well as the seat matrix for the revised mop-up round that was to be held on August 17 and 18.

As per a notification on the board’s website regarding the fresh mop-up round, allotment of seats to candidates from Rajasthan would he held on Saturday while that for candidates from other states would be held on August 18.

As per Dr Sudhi Bhandari, chairman of the board, those candidates would not be eligible for the mop-up round who have resigned with forfeiture clause from their allotted seats of Round 1 and Round 2 as well as those candidates who were allotted a seat in Round 1 or Round 2 and have joined.

Candidates who resigned with forfeiture from their round 1 and round 2 allotted seat and were allotted a seat in the mop-up round held on August 11 and 12 and who did not join their previous allotment of round 1 and round 2 buy August 16, their seats of round 1 and round 2 will be included in the vacancies for revised mop-up round.

The board had on Wednesday stayed the allotment of MBBS and BDS seats came after widespread complaints of irregularities in the counselling process by candidates and their parents.

For the first time, 705 seats have remained vacant in MBBS and 885 seats remained vacant in BDS courses after two rounds of counselling for 23 government and private college that were held on August 11 and 12. The vacant MBBS seats include government seats, management seats and seats reserved for NRI candidates.

Some candidates had approached the high court which asked the state government to make public the seats remaining vacant in each medical college after round two of counselling. The court said the information should be put on the college websites and students should be given 3-4 days to take admission based on merit.

The standard procedure is to hold two rounds of counselling followed by a mop-up round. Seats that remain vacant after the first round have to be offered for the second round. Those that remain vacant after the second round are to be offered in the mop-up round.

Candidates alleged that seats which were allotted in the first round to students who took admission outside the state were not freed up for the second round.

The counselling board delayed the second round to carry out a mapping of the seats and the vacant seats were kept blocked. It was only in the mop-up rounds that these seats were offered to candidates.

“Earlier, only two to three seats used to be left vacant in top medical colleges. This time when the seat matrix was declared on August 11, more than 300 government seats were vacant in top medical colleges. The resignation process closed on August 10,” said Preksha Gehlot, an aspirant at the counseling session.

“When we came for the mop up counseling we realized that the students who have scored low marks than us got admission in good colleges while many of us with good ranks were mislead and left out,” she said.

Another aspirant Riddhi Mishra said that she scored 583 marks in NEET exam and could not secure a seat in SMS medical college while students securing lower marks than her had got admission.

First Published: Aug 19, 2019 13:25 IST