NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the centre and others, including the Tamil Nadu government, seeking their detailed responses to a plea seeking to restrain authorities from surrendering 152 vacant in-service super speciality seats in TN for the academic year 2025-26 to the all-India quota.
Agreeing to hear the petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association, the bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi observed that the cut-off for in-service state doctors should be lower, since they serve in the public health sector while pursuing higher studies, and fixed the matter for further hearing on July 15.
The issue stems from a recent order by a coordinate bench led by Justice P S Narasimha in the Tamilveni case, which had directed TN to inform the Director General of Health Services about the 152 vacant super speciality seats so they could be filled through the all-India merit list.
Following that, the TN Medical Officers Association filed the petition seeking to stop the state from surrendering the vacant DM/M Ch seats during the ongoing NEET-SS 2025 counselling.
The association also prayed that in-service candidates be allowed to compete for these seats in the third round if the qualifying percentile is reduced below 50% after round 2.
Senior Advocate P Wilson, appearing for the petitioners, told the top court that while the percentile was lowered for PG seats, the second round of counselling for SS seats has not taken place due to the Tamilveni order, in which the in-service officers’ association was not represented.