The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that some seats remained unfilled after the second round of counselling in the NEET Super Speciality 2025 admission process and the government was ready to return these seats to Tamil Nadu.
Their petition stated that the policy of reservation for in-service doctors was introduced to address the shortage of specialist doctors in government hospitals and medical colleges and to ensure that super-speciality qualifications acquired through public institutions strengthen the state healthcare system. “In all likelihood, we will hold an additional round of counselling. However, she added that no decision to reduce the percentile has been made. However, the Centre has opposed introducing any kind of reservation in super speciality medical courses, reasoning that there are a limited number of such seats and they should be allotted only on merit. “It is our stand that there should be no reservation in SS courses. This court must decide finally on this issue, or else the problem will repeat every year. The medical officers’ association claimed that once these seats are surrendered, they will suffer adverse consequences.
The petition was filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association to restrain the Tamil Nadu government from transferring the 151 super speciality seats to the All India Quota (AIQ). It cited a 2022 decision of the top court in N Kartikeyan v TN that required in-service SS seats to be surrendered to AIQ. However, the National Medical Commission and the Centre have blamed TN for delaying the counselling for NEET-SS 2025 due to its reluctance to surrender the vacant seats to AIQ.
Wilson said the “noble cause of this in-service reservation” should not be diluted by the court. These medical officers, who are mostly government doctors, said it was important to equip them with super-speciality skills to ensure that more benefits reach the general public. We are taking a decision most likely by today that whatever seats are unfilled will be given to Tamil Nadu,” additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati told the top court.
