The Delhi High Court dismissed a PIL challenging NBEMS’s decision to sharply reduce qualifying cut off percentiles for NEET PG 2025-26 admissions. Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia held vacant seats were against public interest nationwide overall.
NEW DELHI : The Delhi High Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences’ (NBEMS) decision to significantly lower the qualifying cut-off percentiles for the NEET PG 2025-26 exam.
The Division Bench, consisting of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, stated that keeping seats vacant was not in the public interest.
In response to the petitioners’ claim that lowering the cut-off would adversely affect the quality of doctors, the Bench remarked that the NEET PG is merely an entrance examination and that doctors will undergo postgraduate education to specialize.
The controversy surrounding the NEET PG 2025-26 admissions arose after the NBEMS reduced qualifying cut offs to address the tens of thousands of vacant postgraduate medical seats following two rounds of counseling.
Several sections of the medical fraternity have criticised the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) for what they describe as an “unprecedented and irrational” reduction in NEET-PG 2025–26 cut off percentiles, warning that such a move could adversely affect the standard of postgraduate medical training and future healthcare delivery.
With more than 18,000 postgraduate medical seats lying vacant nationwide, NBEMS revised the qualifying criteria after the second round of counselling. The cut-off for reserved categories was lowered from 40 percentile to zero, effectively allowing candidates with scores as low as minus 40 out of 800 to participate in the third counselling round. For the general category, the qualifying percentile was reduced from 50 to seven.
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Medical bodies, including the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and the Federation of Doctors Association (FORDA), have strongly opposed the decision and urged NBEMS to withdraw the notification.
Importantly, a PIL has also been filed with the Supreme Court contesting the cut-off reduction as arbitrary and potentially harmful to the credibility of the NEET PG process. However, the High Court was informed that this petition has defects and has not yet been listed for consideration.
Advocate T Singhdev represented the government in the High Court, explaining that the government made a policy decision to lower the percentiles in order to fill nearly 10,000 vacant PG seats remaining after the second round of counseling.
He stated,
“The central government is entitled to do this, given the large number of vacant seats. The pool of candidates needed for counseling needs to be enlarged,”
Singhdev further noted that this step is necessary since doctors with higher merit often do not select certain courses, while those with lower merit may choose to pursue them.
The petitioner’s counsel emphasized that they did not wish for seats to remain vacant, but were concerned about the quality of the candidates accepted.
After considering the arguments, the Court rejected the case.
The Bench said,
“You are saying this will send MBBS doctors with less competence to PG. The purpose is to make them more skilled in a particular area. These examinations do not ipso facto judge the quality of doctors. They will have to complete the PG Course,”
The Court then dismissed the plea filed by Sanchit Seth.
A similar petition has also been filed in the Allahabad High Court, but it has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.