The recent rounds of NEET PG counselling have highlighted an unusual admission pattern in government medical colleges, with candidates securing postgraduate seats at exceptionally low scores across several specialties in government institutions.
This has raised questions as it also includes core clinical and surgical branches across several states.
This stark shift was especially noted during the third round of counselling for the 2025–26 academic session, where seat allotments were recorded at single-digit and low double-digit scores in multiple disciplines.
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What is happening?
In one of the most striking instances, an MS Orthopaedics seat at a government medical college in Rohtak was allotted to a candidate who scored just 4 marks out of 800, according to an NDTV report.
At a government medical college in Tamil Nadu, a Physiology seat was allotted to a candidate with a minus 12 score. Meanwhile, a premier Delhi medical institution saw an Obstetrics and Gynaecology seat allotted at 44 marks, while a General Surgery seat was filled at 47 marks, the report added.
How low scores can lead to top colleges?
These outcomes followed the Union Health Ministry’s decision to substantially lower NEET-PG qualifying thresholds for the 2025–26 academic session.
Under the revised criteria, the cut-off score for the general category was reduced to 103 from the earlier 276, the report stated.
For SC, ST and OBC categories, the cut-off was brought down to minus 40 from the earlier score of 235, allowing candidates with extremely low — and in some cases negative — scores to qualify for counselling.
The impact was visible across disciplines. Seats were allotted at 10 marks in Transfusion Medicine, 11 marks in Anatomy and even minus 8 marks in Biochemistry, particularly under reserved and Persons with Disabilities (PwD) categories.
Why low score selections can be a problem?
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to explain its drastic reduction of the qualifying cut-off percentiles for NEET-PG 2025-26, according to a PTI report.
“Then the argument will be that the standards are being lowered and the counter-argument is that seats are going waste. So, somewhere there has to be a balance,” the bench observed.
Who is raising the issue?
Doctors’ bodies, including the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) and the Federation of Doctors Association (FORDA), had raised an issue even during the second rounds of counselling.
In a letter addressed to Union Health Minister J P Nadda, FAIMA president Dr Rohan Krishnan said that reducing the qualifying percentile to zero sets a dangerous precedent for the future of India’s medical education system.
