Supreme Court Extends NEET-UG 2024 Counseling Period To Fill Vacant Seats

While hearing a petition seeking an extension for the NEET-UG 2024 admission process, the Supreme Court emphasized the critical shortage of doctors in the country and stressed that medical seats should not be wasted. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan remarked that they were willing to extend the counseling period as a “last chance.” As a result, the court extended the counseling period until December 30, 2024.

The Supreme Court has further directed authorities to conduct a fresh round of counseling to fill the vacant medical seats. Despite five rounds of counseling, many seats remained unfilled. The petition, which request directions for a special round of counseling to address this issue, hear by the bench. The court’s order aims to ensure that these vacant seats do not remain unused, given the pressing need for more doctors in the healthcare sector.

Special Counseling Guidelines And Restrictions In Supreme Court

In its ruling, the court clarified that no college may admit students directly. All admissions must go through state admission authorities. The special counseling will focus solely on students on the waiting list and will not impact admissions that have already finalized.

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Eligibility For NEET All India Counseling

The NEET counseling process, conducted by the Medical Counseling Committee (MCC), handles 15 percent of seats for All India Counseling. For this process, students from the general category who scored above the 50th percentile are eligible to participate in the counseling rounds.

With the new extension and guidelines in place, authorities expect to swiftly fill the vacant seats through the special counseling round, maximizing medical education opportunities to meet the country’s healthcare needs.