NEET PG 2025 Counselling Timeline: A History of Delays, Resets, and “Glitches”

In medicine, precision is everything. Protocols are sacred, and timelines save lives. It is ironic, then, that the body governing our entry into this field operates with the stability of water.

We expect our regulators, the MCC and NMC, to be a “Solid State”: firm deadlines, clear rules, and unshakeable schedules. Instead, the last six months have revealed a governance structure that is entirely fluid, shifting shape with every administrative error.

A Chronology of Chaos

To call this a schedule is generous. It has been a series of stoppages:

• Aug 19 – Oct 17, 2025 (The Blackout): A two-month silence post-results where the process completely froze, citing court cases while administrative work halted.

• Nov 14 – 18, 2025 (The Matrix Glitch): Mid-way through Round 1 choice filling, the sudden addition of seats forced a 4-day reset.

• Dec 17 – Jan 8, 2026 (The Winter Freeze): The resignation window was quietly kept open for nearly three weeks, turning January into a dead month for waitlisted candidates.

• Jan 13, 2026 (The Great Reset): The cut-off was lowered to zero, but instead of a smooth transition, the ongoing Round 3 was abruptly wiped and restarted from scratch.

• Feb 3 – 6, 2026 (The Phantom Result): A provisional result was published, only to be withdrawn hours later due to “seat duplication” errors, delaying the final reporting to Feb 13.

The Cost of “Fluidity”

This instability at the center paralyzes the periphery. State bodies like the MP DME have been forced to postpone their Mop-Up rounds indefinitely, leaving thousands of doctors in limbo.

When an authority treats a deadline as a suggestion, the cost is paid in the mental health of residents. We don’t need more extensions. We need a system that returns to a Solid State.

The Final Test: Stray Vacancy

And yet, the ordeal isn’t over. As we approach the Stray Vacancy Round on February 16, the question isn’t just “Will I get a seat?” but “Will the schedule hold?”

With a track record of six months of resets, recalls, and silence, confidence is at an all-time low. For the sake of the remaining candidates, we can only hope the authority finally finds its footing. No more glitches, no more “technical reasons” – just let us finish what we started

2 min read February 12, 2026