Supreme Court PIL Challenges ‘Zero Percentile’ Cut-Off for NEET-PG 2025-26 Admissions

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court on January 16, 2026, challenging the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) decision to drastically lower the NEET-PG 2025 qualifying cut-offs.

The petitioners, including the United Doctors Front and individual medical professionals, seek to quash the January 13 notice that reduced the cut-off to as low as zero percentile for some categories and negative scores for others. They argue that this move, intended to fill approximately 18,000 vacant seats, violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution by prioritizing seat occupancy over merit.

The plea contends that allowing candidates with “abnormally low” or negative scores to specialize in medicine poses a grave threat to public health and patient safety. The petitioners assert that while the government aims to prevent the wastage of medical seats, doing so by removing the floor for competency compromises the integrity of the medical profession.

They argue that postgraduate training requires a higher threshold of knowledge than basic MBBS, and diluting this standard converts a competitive exam into a “mere administrative formality.”