Expressing surprise over the qualification of the regular doctor in this case, the Supreme Court bench said, ‘We are surprised to see why this method was adopted. These are all regular doctors. In response, the lawyer said that this decision has been taken so that the postgraduation seats are not left vacant.

In fact, the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) significantly reduced the cut-off for NEET PG counseling on January 13. The revised qualifying criteria are applicable to the third round of counseling of NEET-PG 2025–26. The most shocking change is for SC, ST and OBC categories, where the qualifying percentile has been reduced from 40th percentile to zero percentile. This means even those who score minus 40 out of 800 can do medical postgraduation. This revised cut-off score has surprised everyone.

Additionally, for General and EWS candidates, the qualifying percentile has been reduced from 50th to 7th percentile, reducing the cut-off score from 276 to 103. For General PwD candidates, the cut-off has been reduced from 45th to 5th percentile, reducing the score from 255 to 90.

Supreme Court gave these instructions to NBEMS

A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court against reducing the NEET PG cut-off to minus 40 marks. Social worker Harisharan Devgan, neurosurgeon Saurabh Kumar, Dr. Lakshya Mittal (President, United Doctors Front) and Dr. Akash Soni (Member, World Medical Association) had filed the court PIL. Hearing the petition on Friday, the Supreme Court has sought response from the Center and NBEMS on the reduction in the qualifying cut-off percentage for NEET PG 2025-26. The court has asked the board to file an affidavit.

During the hearing, the court remarked that this is a matter of standards, the question is whether those standards are being compromised? The bench indicated that the court would examine whether the decision was ‘grossly wrong’ or not.