Centre agrees to lower cut-off for NEET-SS admission

SC last week asked govt to reconsider its decision not to reduce the cut-off percentile

NEW DELHI: Nudged by Supreme Court to reduce the cut-off percentile for admission to super specialty medical courses to fill around 2,000 vacant seats, Centre Thursday told the court that the qualifying percentile for NEET-SS may go from the existing 50th to 30th for the proposed special stray vacancy round, to be conducted soon, reports Amit Anand Choudhary.SC last week asked govt to reconsider its decision not to reduce the cut-off percentile in order to ensure seats were not wasted. Govt filed a two-page note before a bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe and said "the matter has since been reconsidered in consultation with stakeholders concerned".

"In order to ensure available super specialty seats do not remain vacant and that the available training capacity is optimally utilised, it has been decided that the qualifying percentile for NEET-SS may be reduced from existing 50th percentile to 30th percentile for the purpose of proposed special stray vacancy round," govt said.It, however, told SC those students who had already taken admission would not be allowed to participate in the special stray vacancy round. It proposed the round "be conducted strictly in accordance with the existing principles or rules applicable to a stray vacancy round, with no provision for upgradation of candidates who are already holding/joined a seat", govt said.After the second round of NEET-SS counselling, 1,857 super specialty seats - including 1,094 DM/MCh seats and 763 DNB-SS seats - were vacant. A substantial number of these pertain to highly specialised medical and surgical disciplines.