NEET PG Counselling 2021: Supreme Court’s Denial on Plea to Reduce the Qualifying Percentile
Supreme Court on Wednesday denied urgent listing to the plea filed by NEET 2021 PG applicants for reduction in qualifying percentile criteria across all categories.
NEET PG 2021 applicants filed a plea with the Supreme Court of India through Advocate on record Shivendra Singh seeking reduction in the qualifying percentile for the exam. The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant urgent listing to the petition filed by the applicants.
The plea seeked direction regarding further reduction of qualifying percentile across categories published on March 12, 2022 by National Board of Examination ("impugned notification") more than what was reduced for NEET PG 2020 on July 14, 2020.
Senior Advocate Venugopal on Wednesday sought urgent listing of the case before a bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli, calling it a matter of National interest. He cited the 6600 number of vacant seats out of the 42000 at the end of the mop up round to urge for urgent listing to the plea for reduction in qualifying criteria. CJI NV Ramana refused to grant urgent listing citing the last minute plea; the mop up round will wrap up on Thursday.
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With reference to the notification dated March 12 2022, wherein the qualifying percentile for the General Category was reduced from 50th percentile to 35th Percentile, for SC/ST/OBC from 40th Percentile to 25th Percentile and for UR-PWD from 45th to 30th percentile, Doctors also cited the reduction of qualifying criteria dated July 14 2020 with the argument that the fixation of the criteria should have been more accommodating to those appearing the examination in 2021.
Also to be noted is that a bench led by Justice Chandrakund had last week issued a notice on a petition filed by doctors who appeared in the first round of counseling of NEET PG 2021 seeking permission to appear in the mop-up round.