SC rule could hit Maha students

MUMBAI: Admissions to undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical courses will witness big changes this year with the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) on Saturday releasing a notification that they will conduct four rounds of admissions for all India quota (AIQ) seats as opposed to two rounds conducted until last year. This notification follows a December 15 Supreme Court order after the Directorate General of Health Sciences (DGHS) approached the apex court demanding this change.

“For years it has been noticed that several top scoring students end up blocking seats in the AIQ round and then end up opting for another seat in state quota rounds as well, thus depriving other students with lower scores from getting admission. Henceforth, AIQ seats will only be filled by competent authority (MCC) and no seats from the quota will be surrendered to respective states,” an official statement by the DGHS said.

AIQ rounds are conducted to fill up 15% seats in government and private UG medical institutes and 50% seats in government and private PG medical institutes.

As per rules, AIQ and state admission rounds were conducted simultaneously because vacant seats in AIQ post the second round were surrendered for state quota. As per the latest notification of MCC, 2021-22 academic year onwards four AIQ rounds will be conducted – AIQ 1, AIQ 2, mop-up round 1 and stray vacancy round. “Fresh registration of candidates will be allowed in round 1, 2 and mop-up round. There will be no fresh registrations for candidates in AIQ stray vacancy round,” states MCC notification.