The Supreme Court of India will today hear an urgent plea highlighting the serious issue of 1,140 NEET-PG seats left vacant nationwide. The petition seeks immediate directions to stop this large-scale wastage after all counselling rounds have already concluded.
The Supreme Court of India is scheduled to hear an urgent petition today that raises serious concerns about the large number of unfilled postgraduate medical seats across the country.
The petition, registered as W.P. (C) No. 559/2026, has been filed by Dhruv Chauhan and others.
It seeks immediate directions to prevent the wastage of 1,140 NEET-PG seats that remain vacant for the 2025–2026 academic year even after all counselling rounds have ended.
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The plea is scheduled to be heard today, April 29, 2026, by a Bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe in Court No. 6.
The petitioners, represented by Advocate-on-Record Ms. Neema and arguing counsel Satyam Singh Rajput, state that the refusal of authorities to conduct one final Special Stray Vacancy Round is causing irreversible loss to India’s medical education system.
They point out that during a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on March 17, 2026, the Union Government itself confirmed that 1,140 postgraduate seats were still lying vacant.
However, despite this clear admission, the petition says that the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) have arbitrarily chosen not to conduct an institutional-level stray vacancy round that would allow eligible NEET-PG candidates to compete for the remaining seats.
Emphasising the seriousness of the situation, the legal team stated,
“It is a matter of grave national importance that precious medical education infrastructure, faculty, and training capacity are being left unutilized when the country faces a documented shortage of specialist doctors.”
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The plea explains that,
- A national loss is taking place, because these 1,140 seats represent major specialist training opportunities that could have strengthened the healthcare system.
- The refusal to hold a Special Stray Vacancy Round is arbitrary, especially when the authorities have already reduced the qualifying percentile cut-off with the stated aim of ensuring that maximum seats get filled.
- Courts across India have previously supported such measures, including High Courts in Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, which have held that allowing seats to lapse permanently is against the larger public interest.
The petitioners have therefore requested the Supreme Court to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the NMC and DGHS to immediately conduct an institutional Special Stray Vacancy Round.
They argue that this step is essential for ensuring that deserving candidates get fair opportunities and that India’s medical education capacity is used to its fullest.