India NEET-PG Cut-Off Reduction Challenged

The India — Supreme Court of India has directed the India — National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to explain its decision to drastically reduce the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26 admissions. This reduction, which lowered the cut-off to zero for reserved categories and seven for the general category, was made to fill over 18,000 vacant postgraduate medical seats. However, petitioners, including social worker Harisharan Devgan and doctors Saurav Kumar, Lakshya Mittal, and Akash Soni, argue that this move violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, compromises patient safety, and dilutes the integrity of the medical profession. The India — Supreme Court of India has issued notices to the India — India, the India — National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, and the India — National Medical Commission, seeking their responses and emphasizing the need to balance filling vacant seats with maintaining academic standards. The medical community has largely termed the NBEMS's decision as 'unprecedented and illogical'.