Supreme Court directs DGHS to reconsider allotment of seats done after 2 rounds of Counselling

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted an opportunity to the Union of India through the Directorate General of Health Services to set right the anomalies on two aspects.

The first aspect relates to the decision taken with respect to 146 seats, which were included in the mop up round and as a consequence of such decision, the seats were allocated to the students lower in merit than those who were allotted seats in round 1 and 2 of counselling for All India Quota.

The three-Judge Bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Bela M. Trivedi opined that the decision pertaining to allotment of seats to those who are lower in merits needs to be revisit by DGHS since the consequence of the decisions is to prevent students who were higher in merit and who had no opportunity to seek admission to the 146 seats which are in government colleges to apply for those seats. The Supreme court to hear the matter tomorrow. 

The court, threw light on the second aspect which is as equally important as the first one which arises from advisory issued on March 16,2022. As a consequence of which, candidates who had been allotted seats in round 1 and 2 of state quota were prevented from participating in the mop up round of the AIQ.

The Supreme Court further issued direction to UOI to ensure that process for completing the Mop up round Process to be held in same position as it stands at present

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The 3 judges bench heard a batch of petitions filed by Doctors who had appeared and qualified in NEET-PG 2021 2022 against the Medical Counselling Committee who had deprived the doctors  from participating in the All India Quota (AIQ) Mop Up Round on the ground that they had picked up a seat in State Quota Round -2 Counselling.

The three judges bench of apex court prima facie found that that it appeared from the fact out forth by the Petitioner that the advisory issued on 16.03.2022 has not been followed uniformly, due to which some candidates were allowed to participate in mop up round of AIQ,while others who complied the advisory dated 16.03.2022 could not participate as it was anticipated by them they could be debarred from not following such advisory and they might have to surrender state quota seats which had been allocated to them.

If the advisory dated 16 March 2022 has not been followed uniformly across the country, this would cast serious doubt on whether the allocation of seats in the mop-up round of AIQ has been fair, categorically observed by 3 judges bench.

‘Four rounds of counselling have been envisaged for AIQ PG seats, the last two being the mop-up round and the stray vacancy round.’ noted by the apex court.

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That in Nihila P P vs Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and Others , certain salient principles of a scheme were recorded by the introduction of four rounds of counselling for Post Graduate seats in the All India Quota2 from 2021-2022, observed by 3 Judges Bench of this apex court.

The apex court further reiterated the salient points of scheme which were accepted by this court, summarized below vide order dated 16.12.2021, as laid down in NIHILA PP V. MCC AND ORS–

1. There will be 04 rounds of Online counselling i.e. AIQ Round I, AIQ Round 2, AIQ Mop-up Round and AIQ Stray Vacancy Round.
2. The seats which were earlier reverted back to 4545 3 the respective States after the completion of Round 2 of AIQ will continue to be filled in the AIQ MopUp Round and AIQ Stray Vacancy Round to be conducted by MCC of DGHS, MoHFW in online mode.
3. The said rounds will only be conducted for the AIQ seats having All India character which are contributed by the States for 15% UG seats and 50% PG seats.
4. Fresh registration of candidates will be allowed in: AIQ Round 1 AIQ Round 2 AIQ Mop-Up Round.
5. There will be no fresh registration for candidates in the AIQ Stray Vacancy Round.
6.  There will be an option for up-gradation and free exit, only in Round 1 of the AIQ counselling.
7.  There will not be an option of up-gradation to Mop-up round from round.
8.  Candidates who have joined the allotted seat in Round 2 and further rounds of counselling will not be allowed to resign and will also be ineligible to take part in further rounds of any type of counselling.
9.  Candidates who have not joined the allotted seat in Round 2 will be eligible for further rounds of counselling subject to forfeiture of security 4646 4 deposit and fresh registration in only mop-up round.
10.  The provisions with regard to security deposit, option of free exit and eligibility for participation will be as per the Gazette Notification No.MCI-34(41)/2018-Med./109835 dated 18/05/2018.”.

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Half Portion of the Order entails below : –

UNION OF INDIA COUNTER –

As noted by the apex court vide affidavit dated 25.2.2022 filed by UOI the Directorate General of Health Services  received letters regarding the inclusion of new seats in some government medical colleges, as a consequence of which, 146 new seats became available for allocation in the mop-up round.

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The 146 seats were not available for distribution when the counseling took place either in round I or round 2 for the AIQ seats. As a consequence, students who were allotted seats in round I or round 2 did not have the opportunity to participate in the counseling for these seats. A decision was taken that the new 146 seats would be included in the mop-up round. As a consequence of this decision, these seats have been allocated to students lower in merit than those who were allotted seats in rounds I and 2 3“DGHS” WP(C) 174/2022 5 of counseling for the AIQ.