The Central government on Wednesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on the demand for special counseling on 1456 vacant seats in medical colleges in All India Quota.
The Counsel for the Centre submitted that 1456 medical seats cannot be filled as the software used for NEET PG 2021 has now been discontinued.
If this is done now, the counselling of this session of NEET PG will be interrupted, he added.
As per the Centre, “We had increased the seats last time because the Diploma of National Board (NDB) was not included in counselling.”
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure over the non-filling of vacant posts by the Centre and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), during the hearing of a petition seeking special counseling.
A Bench comprising Justice M.R. Shah and Justice Aniruddha Bose observed that leaving seats in the NEET-PG vacant was not only putting the aspirants into difficulty, but was also leading to a dearth of qualified doctors.
The Apex Court, while hearing a plea seeking Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate for vacant seats available after the conduct of a stray vacant round of All India Quota, said that if situation remained the same, then they will summon the Director General of Health Services to the court and pass the order.
As per the Bench, even if a single course has remained vacant, it must not remain unfilled.
“It is your duty to see that the seats do not remain vacated. You’re playing with the future of the students,” it observed.
The Apex Court said that in May, when the authorities got to know that the seats were vacant, they should have conducted a mop-up round.
“What will you get by leaving the seat vacant when we are in need of doctors?”
It said instead of lowering down the stress levels of students ands parents, the Committee was increasing it, apart from stressing the education system.
The Bench also questioned the addition of seats by MCC, while in the mid of counselling.
“There must be a cut-off that as on date, there are a particular number of seats. This increases the chance of corruption, if the seats are added,” observed the Apex Court.
The Apex Court directed the Central government and the MCC 24 hours time to explain on the issue of vacant seats by filing an affidavit today.
The Supreme Court will hear the matter on June 9.