Delhi High Court Rejects PIL Challenging Lowered NEET PG Cut-off; Round 3 Counseling to Continue

On Wednesday, January 21, 2026, a division bench of the Delhi High Court (Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia) dismissed the PIL that challenged the government’s decision to drastically lower the NEET PG 2025 cut-off.

Why was it Rejected? (The Court’s Logic) : The petitioner argued that lowering the cut-off (to as low as -40 marks for some categories) compromises the “quality of doctors” and endangers patient safety. The High Court rejected this with three strong observations:

1. “Already Doctors”: The court ruled that candidates appearing for NEET PG are already qualified MBBS doctors who are entitled to practice medicine. They are not “unqualified.”

2. “Skill Enhancement”: The judges noted that the purpose of a PG course is to enhance skills in a specific specialty, not to judge the basic competence of a doctor (which the MBBS exam already did).

3. Public Interest: The bench explicitly asked, “Will it be in public interest to leave the seats vacant? No, we will not permit that.” They prioritized filling the thousands of vacant clinical and non-clinical seats over maintaining a high artificial cut-off.