The Supreme Court of India has decided to examine whether the recent sharp reduction in the qualifying cut-off for NEET-PG 2025 could impact the quality of postgraduate medical education in the country.
The issue came up after the cut-off percentile for the NEET-PG was drastically lowered for the final round of counselling. The decision was taken after a large number of postgraduate medical seats remained vacant across colleges. Following the reduction, many more candidates became eligible to participate in counselling.
A bench of the top court observed that while NEET-PG is not a basic eligibility test like undergraduate medical entrance exams — since candidates are already qualified doctors, the court must still consider whether bringing down the qualifying marks significantly could dilute academic standards. The judges said maintaining the quality of medical education is a matter of public importance.
Petitions challenging the move argue that lowering the cut-off so sharply may undermine merit and could affect the overall standard of specialist medical training. The petitioners have also raised concerns that such a decision, taken after the admission process had begun, may be unfair to candidates who had earlier qualified under higher benchmarks.
On the other hand, the Centre and concerned authorities have defended the decision. They told the court that the reduction was a practical step to fill vacant seats, especially in government medical colleges. According to them, candidates appearing for NEET-PG have already completed their MBBS degrees and mandatory internships, which ensures basic competence.
The government has also maintained that NEET-PG primarily serves as a ranking system for allocating limited postgraduate seats and is not meant to certify a doctor’s clinical ability.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the matter in detail next month.
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