SC reserves verdict on extra counselling to fill PG medical seats

SEATS REMAINED UNFILLED AFTER LAST COUNSELLING ROUND FOR THE NEET-PG ENDED ON MAY 7

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a petition that sought a special round of counselling to fill 1,456 post-graduate medical seats going vacant this year but appeared to weigh in favour of the Centre that argued against another round of counselling, saying the delay will impact the medical education to be provided to these doctors.

“Can it be said that for a threeyear course, admission can be granted after more than one year has elapsed? Doctors should be well trained. There cannot be any compromise with education as it can’t be that they are trained for less than three years considering the impact it has on the health of people,” the bench told a group of doctors led by Astha Goel who filed the petition.

“We are with you that no medical seats should remain vacant. But for many years, seats have remained vacant. There must be a limit to everything. It cant be further extended as counselling cannot be a perpetual exercise,” the bench of justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose said.

The court told senior advocate Rachna Srivastava and advocate Charu Mathur, who appeared for the petitioners, that it will pronounce a detailed verdict on Friday.

The seats had remained unfilled after the last mop-up counselling round for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Post-Graduation (NEET-PG) 2021-22 ended on May 7.

The top court’s stand on Thursday was a departure from its observations a day earlier when it underlined that not a

single seat must go vacant and threatened to order the government to compensate the petitioners if a single seat was allowed to be wasted.

The bench acknowledged the change, citing the arguments made by the Centre’s additional solicitor general (ASG) Balbir Singh who underlined that the problem was structural in nature and had nothing to do with an additional round of counselling.

Singh told the court that out of the 1,456 seats, almost 1,100 vacant seats were in private medical colleges where students do not prefer to take admission due to the exorbitant fee charged by them.

There were only 300 vacant seats in government colleges and most of them were non-clinical seats which remain vacant every year as they are meant for those opting for teaching and do not help doctors in their careers. Nearly 1,170 seats of the 1,456 vacant seats fall in the non-clinical category, Singh added.

The Centre’s affidavit filed on Wednesday evening said more than 600 seats remained vacant in 2019 and 2020, and this was not on account of an absence of opportunity to exercise the option but lack of any takers for non-clinical seats.