"Does not make sense:" Delhi High Court directs Centre to submit files relating to fixing percentile cut-off in NEET PG medical courses

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Central government to submit all the files related to fixing and lowering of cut-off percentiles in postgraduate (PG) medical courses for the current year [Dr Abhinav Kumar and Ors v Union of India and Anr].A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla directed the Centre to submit all the details by March 23, when the case will be heard next..The direction came on a petition filed by some medical students challenging the regulation prescribing minimum 50 percentile marks in the National Eligibility-Cum-Entrance Test (NEET) as eligibility criteria for selection in PG courses.The plea, filed through advocates Varun Singh, Deepti Arya, Akshya Dev and Rishabh Rana, said that despite availability of qualified MBBS graduates who are willing to apply for PG courses, hundreds of seats are going vacant because of the percentile system.The Court was told that around 5,500 of the total 23,000 seats for PG courses remained vacant in the year 2020.“From the standpoint of doctors, the percentile system is unconstitutional because it debars qualified doctors which fall below the rank of 50 percentile to be considered in the merit list. In the present circumstances when there is urgent need of specialized doctors, consideration of PG courses beyond the 50 percentiles would allow the Respondent to fill up all seats which remain vacant year after year and reduce the shortage of specialized doctors across different hospitals across India,” the plea stated..During the course of the hearing, the Bench remarked the rule about percentile is not making sense especially in view of hundreds of seats being vacant.When counsel appearing for the National Medical Commission submitted that the system is necessary since unworthy candidates cannot be allowed to go into specialisation, the judges said that they are not suggesting that unqualified students should be admitted into PG course but relative merit (through percentile system) cannot be used to limit the number of people without looking into their merit.“We are not suggesting that most incompetent people should be given admission. By all means qualify a percentage but by prescribing a percentile, you are limiting the number of people without even looking into their actual merit. You are looking at his relative merit instead. By talking of percentile, you are doing that only,” the Court said..The High Court added the government has created the infrastructure for a certain number of PG seats, and it is entitled to maintain standards of medical education by saying that it will not allow students below a certain percentage of marks in their undergraduate courses. Yet, how could it let hundreds of seats remain vacant despite the fact that there is no dearth of students wanting to get admission, the Bench wondered. “You are trying to control the flow through percentile. That is the way to control the number of PG Doctors. But how can that be? You yourself have created the infrastructure for so many seats. You are entitled to maintain standards of medical education. You can say that we will not allow below 50%. But it cannot be that hundreds of seats remain vacant. You reduce the number of seats if you want this to continue.”.The Bench said it will not allow any adjournments on the next hearing date.