NEW DELHI : July 6 was a contentious date in all NEET-UG case hearings before vacation benches because that was when the National Testing Agency had told the Supreme Court it intended to start counselling for admission to undergraduate medical courses across the country.
The court had rejected all petitions demanding a stay on counselling till the case on the alleged malpractices in NEET-UG is disposed of.
Even requests for a two-day stay till July 8, when a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud will begin hearing a batch of petitions demanding scrapping of the exam, were turned down.
July 6 came and went but the counselling didn’t start. Turns out that its schedule hasn’t even been notified yet by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC).
The counselling schedule for NEET-UG and PG is announced by MCC, under the Directorate General of Health Services, on its website after the completion of the exam process and the finalisation of the seat matrix by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
In 2021, 2022 and 2023, the counselling for UG seats commenced on 19/1/2022, 11/10/2022 and 20/7/2023 respectively, the ministry said in a statement.
For this year, NMC communicated its schedule for finalisation of the seat matrix for UG and PG seats in the last week of June, indicating it will finalise the UG seat matrix by the third week of July and PG seat matrix by mid-August. The MCC will accordingly notify the counselling schedule.