CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered the director general of health services (DGHS) attached to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to conduct mop-up counselling for NEET-Super Specialty 2024-25, so as to fill the vacant seats and enable successful candidates to get their preferred courses.
The order was passed on Thursday by Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan on a petition filed by Dr Ajitha, Dr Preethi T R and Dr Navaneetham G praying for orders to conduct the mop-up counselling to fill all vacancies across several states. The judge directed the DGHS and MCC to conduct the counselling within four weeks.
Senior counsel P H Arvindh Pandian, representing the petitioners, submitted that out of the 5,000 super specialty seats available in medical colleges across the country, as many as 600 are lying vacant after two rounds of counselling under NEET-SS and an additional round will benefit the candidates and also fill the seats.
He told the court that denial of mop-up counselling will result in arbitrary and unjustified non-utilisation of valuable resources of public and private medical educational institutions, particularly in the high-demand, prestigious institutions. It will defeat the objective of equitable access to medical education, he added.
“The Super Specialty seats are a valuable public resource created at significant cost and must not remain vacant. The respondents’ failure to include TN’s unfilled seats in the national counselling process has resulted in wastage, warranting a mop-up round to ensure optimal seat utilisation in public interest,” Arvindh Pandian submitted.
Additional Solicitor General of India A R L Sundaresan, representing the respondents including the DGHS, opposed the writ petition contending that the counselling sessions for PG Super Specialty courses were conducted by the DGHS in strict compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court in the case of Anish Ranjan, by which strict time schedules have been fixed and there cannot be any extension of time.
It was further submitted that the Supreme Court fixed the last date on August 31 of every year, and so a fresh mop-up round cannot be held in September after the cut-off dates are over. Also, the relief sought for was highly belated and the academic year had already begun.