Supreme Court to Examine Validity of NEET PG Cut-Off Reduction by Centre

The “NEET-PG cut-off fiasco” centers on the Union government’s controversial decision to drastically lower the qualifying scores for postgraduate medical admissions. Under the revised criteria, the cut-off plunged from 276 down to 103 for the general category, and from 235 to an unprecedented minus 40 for SC/ST/OBC candidates.

The Centre defended this move as an administrative “policy decision” necessary to prevent thousands of PG seats from going vacant, arguing that since all candidates already hold valid MBBS degrees, basic clinical competence is already assured.

During the latest hearing, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe heavily scrutinized this defense, labeling the near-zero cut-offs a “serious issue” that threatens the overall quality of medical education in India. The Court asserted its authority to examine the constitutional validity of the policy decision, demanding that the government prove how admitting candidates with zero or negative scores does not institutionalize sub-standard competence or compromise public health.

Also read: “not our decision” nbems distances itself from negative neet pg score

The petitioners strongly challenged the Centre’s stance by arguing that the primary goal of postgraduate medical education must be merit, not simply filling empty seats. They highlighted the massive fee disparity between government institutions (costing up to ₹27,000) and private colleges (costing upwards of ₹1.5 crore).

They argued that repeatedly lowering the percentile effectively allows wealthy, low-scoring candidates to “buy” specialized medical degrees, completely sidelining meritorious students who cannot afford the exorbitant private fees.