NEET (PG) 2021 The exam is generally held in December–January but in 2021 it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was held in September 2021. However, counselling for students who appeared for the exam has not been conducted yet because of cases pending in the
Supreme Court over reservations to the
economically weaker section. The delay in counselling has resulted in shortage of doctors at hospitals, increasing workload for existing resident doctors. Protests over the delay in counselling began on November 27 with resident doctors boycotting work in out patient departments which gradually escalated to “withdrawal from all service”. The boycott was suspended on December 9 after the doctors were given assurances that the counselling schedule will be released in a week, but they resumed the boycott from December 17 as the government failed to act on those assurances. On 27 December 2021, resident doctors that were marching towards the Supreme Court were stopped and “brutally thrashed, dragged, and detained” by the Delhi Police according to FORDA, an association of resident doctors.
NEET (PG) 2024 The exam was first announced to be conducted on March 3rd. It was then officially postponed to July 7th due to reasons unknown. Later, NBE made an announcement that the exam is Preponed to June 23rd. Admit cards were released and all arrangements were made for the exam. On June 22nd night at around 10pm, the NBE made an official announcement stating the exam is postponed in view of integrity of the examination. After several weeks, the board finally announced the new date, and conducted the exam in two shifts on August 11th. The students expressed disparity in the level of toughness due to the two shifts. Normalization was undertaken & results were announced. Supreme court cases emerged stating lack of transparency regarding the result, normalization, answer key, etc. This caused a lot of delay in the counselling process.
NEET (PG) cutoff revisions In 2023, the
Indian Medical Association (IMA) had written to
Union Health Ministry seeking reduction in cutoff marks for NEET (PG) 2023 to prevent medical college seats from going vacant. Subsequently, the
Union Health Ministry directed the
National Medical Commission (NMC) to reduce NEET (PG) qualifying cutoff to zero percentile across all categories, effectively allowing students scoring -13 marks to qualify for counseling which can be as low as -40 for SC/ST category. The same pattern of revision of NEET (PG) cutoff criteria was repeated in 2025 but for 7th percentile down from 50th percentile for General and EWS category, 5th percentile down from 45th percentile for PwD category and zero percentile down from 40th percentile for SC/ST/OBC category, after over 9,000 seats of 65,000 - 70,000 PG medical seats remained vacant even after second round of counseling. The
IMA, writing again to the
Union Health Ministry warned of doctor shortages, increased workload and its effect on academics and healthcare in the nation. While
NBEMS officials clarified that the exam is meant to generate a merit list and not reassess competence of doctors already qualifying MBBS and that admissions will remain merit based, the move has seen sharp criticism from doctors questioning the prioritization of interest of stakeholders of medical education over its effect on quality of
healthcare in India, with Dr. Rohan Krishnan, chief patron of a medical fraternity, Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) expressing disappointment in the decision explaining that the move is intended to fill seats in "substandard" private medical colleges that do not fulfill seats due to low interest from higher scoring candidates and also identifying the recently added private medical college seats as a result of confidence in demand due to pattern of lowering of cutoff criteria.
Federation of Resident Doctor's Association (FORDA) also opposed the move, claiming that it “undermines meritocracy, transparency and public trust in the medical education system.”
Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) also expressed serious concern about the cutoff revision's effect on healthcare quality and criticized that transparent algorithm for filling vacant seats already set in NEET PG information bulletin must be strictly followed and exhausted before taking such steps. The association also called for lowering of medical fees which it attributed to causing vacancy of seats. A
public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer challenging NEET (PG) 2023 cutoff revision reached the
Supreme Court that while questioning his right to represent the matter, dismissed the plea citing the petitioner for having no
locus standi. In 2026, the
Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the 2025 revisions that it violates
Article 14 and
Article 21 of the Constitution, and challenges legality and fairness of altering eligibility conditions after the selection process had already begun. Under affidavit issued by
NBEMS, it claims no role in the cut-off revision and that it merely acted in compliance of orders from the
Union Health Ministry while emphasizing that 95,913 additional qualifying candidates will be affected by any interference and referring to a recent
Delhi High Court ruling squashing a public interest litigation challenging the same. == See also ==