NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Medical Counselling Committee for leaving more than 1,450 seats vacant in NEET-PG-21, saying it will not only put the aspirants in a spot but would also lead to a dearth of doctors.
A vacation bench of Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose gave 24-hours to the Centre and the MCC to file an affidavit indicating the position remaining vacant seats and the reasons as to why they were not filled up. The court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
The bench was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a special stray round of counselling to fill the 1,456 seats which have remained vacant after the conduct of a stray round of counselling in All India Quota. “Even if there is a single vacant seat it should not have gone unfilled…After every round of counselling, this is the same problem. Why can’t the process be streamlined?” the bench remarked.
The Directorate General of Health Services filed an affidavit saying it has concluded four rounds of online counselling and cannot fill the 1,456 seats by conducting a special stray round of counselling as the software stands closed.
The DGHS said the prayer of the petitioners for a special stray round of counselling is at a belated stage and will disrupt the whole process for the upcoming session as the counselling for two academic sessions cannot run concurrently.