Overview
- The Supreme Court issued notice to the Union, DGHS, NMC, Tamil Nadu and the MCC after a petition by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association asked the court to stop the state from surrendering 152 vacant in‑service super‑speciality seats to the All India Quota.
- In oral observations on June 24 the bench said in‑service government doctors who work while they study should face a lower NEET‑SS qualifying percentile so more state doctors can access specialist training.
- Petitioners want the 152 seats held back until the second round of AIQ counselling is complete and want in‑service candidates allowed to compete in later rounds if percentiles are relaxed, arguing about 111 in‑service candidates remain on waiting lists.
- The dispute conflicts with a recent co‑ordinate bench order that directed Tamil Nadu to inform the DGHS about vacant seats for reversion to AIQ and the state has filed a review against that order, leaving counselling and seat conversion in limbo.
- The case could reshape how vacant super‑speciality seats are filled nationwide, since roughly 1,800 SS seats remain unfilled countrywide and states like Tamil Nadu (which earmarked about half of its 430 SS seats for in‑service doctors) have historically relaxed percentiles later in counselling.