Government Holds on Cutting NEET-PG Cut-off, Supreme Court Demands Re-evaluation

In New Delhi, the Centre appeared before the Supreme Court and announced that it will not reduce the NEET-PG super-speciality admission cut-off for the current year, citing consultations with the Ministry of Health, the Medical Counselling Committee and the National Medical Commission. Additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati presented this decision to Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe. Petitioners, led by advocate Rashmi Nandakumar, argued that roughly 2,000 seats would stay vacant if the cut-off remains unchanged, emphasizing past use of special, mop-up and stray rounds to fill gaps.

The bench instructed the government to revisit its position and provide a briefing at the next hearing. Meanwhile, the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences has already lowered the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2025, setting it to zero for reserved categories and to the seventh percentile for the general category, allowing low-scoring candidates to participate in the third counselling round.