The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) for leaving more than 1,450 seats vacant in NEET-PG-21, saying it will not only put the aspirants in difficulty but would also lead to a dearth of doctors.
The SC gave 24 hours to the Centre and the MCC to file an affidavit indicating the position of total seats which have remained vacant and the reasons as to why they were not filled up by the candidates. The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
Do you even know the stress level of the students and their parents,? asked the SC.
Late in the evening, the Centre filed an affidavit, saying that the 1,456 vacant seats cannot be filled by “stray counseling” as software used for NEET 2021 is closed. Stray counseling will lead to disruption of NEET 2022 counselling, it said
As per the details of the Centre’s affidavit published by legal portals, the Centre said that the number of vacant seats went up because counselling for DNB courses was also included in #NEETPG2021 and no seats were reverted back to the respective participating States after completion of the second round of all India counselling.
Earlier, a vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a special stray round of counseling to fill the 1456 seats which have remained vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling in All India Quota. During the hearing, the bench said,
“Even if there is a single vacant seat it should not have gone unfilled. It’s the duty of the Medical Council to see that these seats do not remain vacant. After every round of counselling, this is the same problem. Why cannot the process be streamlined? What do we get by leaving the seats vacant when we are in need of doctors? This will not only create problems for the aspirants but would also encourage corruption”.
The apex court told the counsel appearing for the Centre and the MCC that why can’t there be a stress-less education system, where everything is streamlined. “Do you even know the stress level of the students and their parents? Why during the midst of the counselling, you have been adding the seats. There is already a judgement of this court in this regard. There must be a cut-off date for the number of seats and how many admissions will be given”, the bench said.
The bench said that if the students are not given admission, it may pass the order in the matter and direct compensation to the candidates, who have been denied admission. The Judges then asked the counsel as to who is in charge of the admissions to which he replied that it is the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS). “Ask DGHS to remain in the court on Thursday”, the bench orally observed, adding that some responsibility needs to be fixed.
“It is the future of the students which is at stake here. First, you have to study hard and then you have to give the examination. Even if you get 99 per cent marks in the examination, there is an admission problem. Then there is the super speciality problem. Do you even understand the situation of the students,” said the Court.
When the counsel said that he is being led by Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh who is in some personal difficulty and sought adjournment of the matter, the bench said these are very serious matters related to the rights of the medical students and said that the Union of India is not represented by only one ASG. The bench asked the counsel to file the affidavit during the course of the day and circulate it to the petitioners and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.