NEET PG: Supreme Court Orders Fee Transparency and Penalties to End Seat Blocking

The Supreme Court of India has taken a decisive step to end the widespread malpractice of seat blocking in NEET-PG postgraduate medical admissions, calling it a serious threat to merit-based selection. In a significant ruling, the court ordered all private and deemed universities to publicly disclose their full fee structure before the counselling process begins. This includes tuition fees, hostel charges, caution deposit, and other miscellaneous costs.

The verdict, delivered by a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, came in response to a petition filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and the Director General of Medical Education & Training, challenging a 2018 ruling by the Allahabad High Court. The High Court had earlier directed compensation to two candidates who lost out on seats due to the seat-blocking issue.

The Supreme Court expressed strong displeasure over the manipulation of seat allotment by institutions, stating that it reflects systemic failures, including fragmented governance, lack of transparency, and ineffective enforcement of rules. The bench noted that many PG medical seats go vacant each year due to such unethical practices, which disadvantage deserving candidates.

To fix these problems, the court issued several key directives:

• A nationally synchronized counselling calendar must be implemented to align All India Quota and state-level rounds, reducing confusion and preventing misuse.
• A centralized fee regulation system under the National Medical Commission (NMC) should be created for uniformity and clarity.
• Strict penalties will apply to those involved in seat blocking, including loss of security deposits, disqualification from future NEET-PG exams, and blacklisting of guilty colleges.
• Already admitted students will be allowed to upgrade seats after the second round, but new applicants cannot join at that stage.
• Raw scores, answer keys, and normalization methods must be published to ensure transparency in exams conducted in multiple shifts.

This ruling is expected to significantly improve the fairness and integrity of NEET-PG counselling and protect the interests of genuine aspirants.