Delhi HC Gives Relief to NEET-PG Candidates, Says Seat Allotment Alone Is Not Admission
Delhi High Court has directed that candidates who were allotted seats in the Stray Vacancy Round (SVR) of NEET-PG 2025 but didn’t join can’t be treated as “ineligible” for Sponsored Post MBBS DNB (SPMD) counselling, holding that mere allotment doesn’t amount to “pursuing” a postgraduate course.
Justice Jasmeet Singh passed the order while issuing notice on a writ petition filed by Remika Devi challenging NBEMS’ decision declaring her ineligible to participate in the Sponsored Post MBBS DNB seats counselling for the 2025 admission session.
Only candidates currently pursuing a postgraduate course are barred from admission to Sponsored Post MBBS DNB seats, the court noted under Clause 2.3 of the NBEMS handbook.
However, the High Court disagreed with this decision. The bench led by Justice Jasmeet Singh clearly stated that there is a big difference between “seat allotment” and “joining” a course. According to the court, only joining a course counts as actually pursuing it.
The court explained that when a candidate is allotted a seat but does not join, the only penalty mentioned in the rules is the loss of the security deposit. There is no rule that says such candidates should be banned from future counselling rounds.
Based on this, the court set aside the earlier notices issued by NBEMS in March 2026, which had declared these candidates ineligible. It allowed them to take part in the SPMD counselling process, but with one condition, they must forfeit their deposit for not joining the earlier seat.
The court also rejected the argument that such candidates should be blocked to prevent “seat blocking.” While it agreed that seat blocking is a serious issue, it said that authorities cannot create new penalties unless they are clearly written in the rules.
Importantly, the court referred to a previous Supreme Court judgment in the case of State of U.P. vs Bhavna Tiwari. It noted that even in that case, the only consequence of not joining a seat was the loss of fees, and not disqualification from future opportunities.
Another key point raised by the court was that stricter penalties like disqualification may come in the future with the implementation of the National Exit Test (NExT). But since NExT has not yet been introduced, such penalties cannot be applied right now.
This judgment is expected to benefit many NEET-PG candidates who were confused or affected by changing rules during counselling. It also highlights the need for clear and transparent guidelines in medical admissions.
