PremiumSupreme Court has reserved its order on the plea seeking a Special Stray Round of counselling for NEET-PG 2021, to allow the candidates to participate for vacant seats available after the conduct of a stray vacant round of All India Quota.
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The Supreme Court has stated that there has to be a limit to the stray round of counselling for All India Quota (AIQ) in NEET-PG-21 and the students cannot be given admission by compromising the education and the health of people. The Bench observed that if the seats remain vacant even after 8 or 9 rounds of counselling, then students cannot claim rights after 1.5 years.
The observation was made by a vacation bench of Justices M R Shah and Aniruddha Bose which reserved its order for Friday on a batch of petitions seeking a special stray round of counselling to fill the 1,456 seats in NEET-PG-21 that have remained vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling for All India Quota.
"Special stray rounds, special stray rounds- there must be a limit. For many years, the seats have remained vacant and it is not for the very first time. The court observed.
"There must be a limit to the entire exercise. Merely because some seats have been left vacant after 8-9 rounds of counselling can you say you will be given admission after one-and-half years in a three-year course compromising with the education and the health of people? Try to appreciate this is a three-year course," the bench observed while concluding the hearing.
The Court was hearing a plea seeking a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate for vacant seats available after the conduct of a stray vacant round of All India Quota. The petition has been preferred by the doctors who appeared in NEET-PG 2021 and participated in rounds 1 and 2 of All India Quota (AIQ) Counselling and State Quota Counselling which was followed by All India Mop-Up and State Mop-Up Rounds.
Earlier the apex court had slammed the Medical Counselling Committee, stating that leaving 1456 seats in NEET-PG vacant not only puts aspirants into difficulty but also leads to a dearth of qualified doctors. It had also asked the authorities to file its affidavit and explain the position of the vacant seats & why they have not been filled.
Medical Counselling Committee claimed that the software used for conducting NEET-PG 2021 online counselling has been closed and that's why it's not possible to fill 1,456 vacant seats by conducting a Special Stray Round of counselling. Hence, the counselling process for two academic sessions, i.e. 2021 and 2022, could not run concurrently. To this the centre today added that vacant seats are mostly non-clinical and don't produce doctors but teaches and hence students don't opt for them.
In 2021, out of the said 1,456 vacant seats, 800/900 seats were opted for but the students did not take admission. As result of this, the seats again became vacant.
"Out of the allotted 1,177 today, the number which has gone to 1,400 something, they have not taken the admission. That's why the numbers have come to 1,456 vacant seats...Around 1100 are in private colleges and they are far more expensive. No one wants to participate in the seats which are in private colleges and they are in non-clinical seats," ASG Balbir Singh submitted.
The counselling for NEET-PG 2021 was closed after 9 rounds of counselling. "4 rounds of State counselling, 4 rounds of AIQ counselling and another round was conducted for AIQ round. After 9 counselling the situation has come. This problem arises every year