Over 95,000 Added to NEET-PG Counselling After Cut-off Lowered: NBEMS Tells SC

The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has informed the Supreme Court that lowering the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2025 has made 95,913 additional candidates eligible for counselling. In an affidavit submitted to the court, NBEMS emphasized that any judicial interference at this stage would directly affect these candidates.

The board clarified that it has no role in deciding the cut-off , which falls within the exclusive domain of the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Medical Commission (NMC). The affidavit was filed in response to a plea challenging the drastic reduction in qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe had on February 4 issued notices to the government, NBEMS, NMC, and others regarding the petition.

With over 18,000 postgraduate medical seats across the country still vacant, NBEMS revised the qualifying percentiles for NEET-PG 2025 admissions. For reserved categories , the cut-off was reduced from 40 percentile to zero , allowing candidates scoring as low as minus 40 out of 800 to participate in the third round of counselling. For the general category, the cut-off was reduced from 50 percentile to seven percentile.

The Supreme Court is seized of a plea filed by social worker Harisharan Devgan and doctors Saurav Kumar, Lakshya Mittal, and Akash Soni , who argued that the cut-off reduction violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which guarantee equality before the law and the right to life and personal liberty.

This decision by NBEMS has significantly widened the pool of candidates eligible for postgraduate medical admissions , highlighting the impact of policy changes on thousands of aspirants nationwide.