Guwahati: The Supreme Court has issued a significant order addressing the widespread malpractice of seat blocking in NEET-PG (postgraduate medical) admissions, mandating pre-counselling fee disclosures by all private and deemed universities across India.
A Bench comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, in an order dated April 29, stated that seat blocking distorts the true picture of seat availability, undermines fairness in the selection process, and turns merit-based admissions into a game of chance.
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The court emphasized that the issue is not an isolated problem but a reflection of deeper systemic issues including fragmented oversight, lack of transparency, and poor enforcement mechanisms.
“Though some technical controls and deterrents exist, the core problems such as real-time seat tracking and synchronized admissions remain unresolved,” the court noted.
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To address this, the apex court directed the implementation of a nationally synchronized counselling calendar to ensure coordination between All India Quota and state-level counselling processes. The goal is to eliminate opportunities for seat hoarding and manipulation.
Key directives from the court include:
Mandatory fee disclosure: All private and deemed universities must clearly publish their tuition fees, hostel charges, caution deposits, and other costs prior to counselling.
Centralised fee regulation: A uniform fee structure is to be created under the oversight of the National Medical Commission.
Strict penalties: Seat blockers may face forfeiture of their security deposit, disqualification from future NEET-PG exams, and colleges involved may be blacklisted.
Post-round upgrades: Students already admitted may be allowed to upgrade to better seats after Round 2, without opening the process to new applicants.
Transparent evaluations: Raw NEET-PG scores, answer keys, and normalisation formulas used in multi-shift exams must be made public.
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The ruling came in response to a plea filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and the state’s Director General of Medical Education & Training, who challenged a 2018 Allahabad High Court decision.
The High Court had ordered compensation for two students affected by seat blocking and instructed authorities to take corrective action.