NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought an affidavit from the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) explaining the reasons for reducing the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26, while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the move.
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe was hearing pleas challenging the January 13 notice issued by NBEMS lowering the qualifying percentile for counselling. The court remarked, “Our conscience has to be satisfied that there is no devious reason, that’s all.”
The impugned notification reduced the minimum qualifying percentile for the third round of counselling across categories. The general category cut-off was lowered from 276 to 103 marks, while the SC, ST and OBC cut-off was reduced from 235 to minus 40 marks, effectively bringing the qualifying percentile to zero for reserved categories.
The bench said it would review the decision after receiving responses from the Centre and other authorities, noting that it would examine whether the decision was “drastically wrong” or driven by any ulterior motive.
Petitioners argued that the sharp reduction was arbitrary and undermined standards of postgraduate medical education. They contended that allowing candidates with extremely low or negative scores to participate in counselling compromises patient safety and the integrity of the medical profession.
NBEMS defended the revision, citing more than 18,000 postgraduate medical seats remaining vacant nationwide. The Board revised the cut-off for reserved categories from 40 to 0.