Overview
- A bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said the government must justify a drastic drop “virtually bringing it to zero,” and kept the matter part-heard for March 24.
- The Union’s affidavit says NEET-PG is a ranking exercise, not a minimum-competence test, and that MBBS plus supervised postgraduate training with 50% exit exams safeguards standards.
- A January 13 NBEMS notice lowered qualifying percentiles to the 7th (General/EWS), 5th (General‑PwBD) and 0th (SC/ST/OBC) percentiles, which the Centre says added about 1,00,054 candidates to reach 2,28,170 eligible for Round 3.
- Government figures note 9,621 All‑India Quota seats were vacant after Round 2, including 5,213 in government colleges, and that 2,988 seats remained unfilled after Round 3.
- NBEMS told the Court it only implemented Ministry directions; petitioners call the move arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 21, warning of quality risks and citing prohibitive private‑college fees.