SC Grants Interim Relief To NEET Super Specialty Students Seeking To Resign From DM/MCH/DNB Seats

The Supreme Court recently granted interim relief to NEET Super Specialty aspirants who wished to resign from their allocated Doctorate of Medicine (DM), Master of Chirurgiae (MCH), and Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats.

In an order passed on February 17, the bench led by Justices BR Gavai and Manoj Mishra allowed such post-graduate medical students to resign if they so desired.

The interim order was passed on February 17 in response to a writ petition challenging restrictions on medical students’ ability to resign from such seats once they were assigned as part of a counselling scheme for the All India Quota for these NEET-Super Specialty courses. Eleven medical students have filed the aforementioned plea.

The petition also questioned the penalty  imposed by universities or colleges on NEET Super Specialty aspirants who resign from their seats.

However, the Court clarified that the question of whether such a penalty could be imposed would be determined by the outcome of the case.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan argued on behalf of the medical students (petitioners) that if the students are allowed to withdraw from their seats at this stage, the resulting vacant seats could be placed in mop-up rounds and thus filled.

He noted that in previous years, several special mop-up rounds were required to fill such vacant seats, and yet many remained unfilled.

On behalf of the Medical Counselling Committee, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati opposed the grant of interim relief sought.

Nonetheless, the Court granted the students interim relief by allowing them to resign from their seats. The Court also stated that the resulting vacant seats could be considered in mop-up rounds conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee.