The Supreme Court on Thursday approved the Centre’s decision to reduce the qualifying percentile for admission to National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test super-speciality (NEET-SS) courses from 50th to 30th percentile to fill around 1,800 vacant super-speciality seats across the country.
A bench of justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe passed the order after the government said the decision was taken following the court’s suggestion to reduce the admission percentile to ensure seats do not go waste in the NEET-SS 2025 counselling, with two rounds already completed and a stray vacancy round proposed to be held by the Directorate General Health Services. The court also approved the Centre’s decision to revert 40 of the total super-speciality seats to in-service doctors in Tamil Nadu who are serving in rural areas.
On a reconsideration, the Centre has decided to reduce the percentile “to ensure that the available Super Speciality seats do not remain vacant and that the available training capacity is optimally utilised,” additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, told the court.
