NEET PG 2025 Counselling: Supreme Court directs NMC to include 49 PG seats at HIMSR
The apex court allowed counselling for these seats for the 2025–26 academic year and instructed that the seats must also be included in all rounds of the NEET PG counselling. The court has directed this so that PG medical seats gets wasted for the academic and allowin these seats to remain unfilled will be unfair for the medical students.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Medical Commission (NMC) to include 49 postgraduate medical seats of the Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (HIMSR) in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET PG) 2025 counselling so that the seats are not lost for the upcoming academic year.
With the order being passed on January 27 by a Bench comprising Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, the top court allowed counselling for these seats for the 2025–26 academic session and instructed that the seats must also be included in all rounds of NEET PG counselling beginning from the very first round scheduled on January 29.
SC allows counselling to begin
The court noted that postgraduate counselling for students who appeared in the NEET PG exam is set to commence shortly and that no delay should prevent eligible candidates from participating. The Bench observed that students seeking admission to postgraduate courses at HIMSR must be allowed to take part in counselling strictly based on their NEET merit ranking without any uncertainty over seat availability.
Dispute over affiliation approval
The matter reached the Supreme Court after confusion arose due to the non-issuance of the consent of affiliation by Jamia Hamdard the parent university. This led to doubts over whether the 49 postgraduate seats of HIMSR could be included in the official counselling process.
Because of this pending issue the seats were at risk of being excluded from the NEET PG seat matrix which could have resulted in all 49 seats remaining vacant for the entire academic year.
Seats directed to be included in seat matrix
With the urgency of the counselling schedule, the SC stated that immediate intervention was necessary. The court recorded submissions made on behalf of the NMC stating that it would comply with any direction passed by the court, subject to the final outcome of the case.
After hearing senior counsel representing all parties including the university and the medical regulator the court directed the NMC to include the 49 seats in the official seat matrix of HIMSR so that they can be allotted to eligible candidates during counselling.
The Bench also highlighted that allowing these seats to go unfilled would be unfair to NEET-qualified students waiting for admission. It said the directions were issued in the larger interest of students and to ensure that postgraduate medical seats do not go in vain for the academic year.