The Supreme Court on Monday (February 23, 2026) said that it will consider whether the reduction in the cut-off of NITI-PG 2025-26 has any impact on the quality of medical education. The court has called it a serious issue. Some petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, challenging a notice dated January 13 of the National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS). In the notice, there has been a huge reduction in the cut-off marks for NEET-PG 2025-26.
The notice said that the decision to reduce the cut-off has been taken on the instructions of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The board had changed the cut off in view of more than 18 thousand vacant NEET PG seats. After the change, the qualifying percentile for SC-ST and OBC was reduced from 40 to zero, that is, candidates scoring minus 40 marks out of 800 can also participate in the third round of counselling. At the same time, the cut off for general category was reduced from 50 to 7 percentile i.e. candidates of general category who score 103 marks out of 800 can participate in counselling.
According to the Bar and Bench report, Justice P.S. The matter was placed before the bench of Justice Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe. The court said that our biggest concern is the adverse impact on the quality of education. It is a matter of quality. The court told NBEMS that it will have to prove that such a huge reduction in the cut-off will have little impact on the quality of education. The court said that however, it is logical for you to say that this is not an issue of getting admission in MBBS but an issue of admission in post graduation. This is a different kind of case, because those applying (for PG) are already doctors. We have to consider this issue.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Central Government, citing the arguments given in the government’s affidavit, said that in view of the large number of vacant seats, the decision to reduce the cut-off marks was taken. He said that this examination does not certify the minimum clinical eligibility, as the candidates already have MBBS degree and the purpose of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Post-Graduate (NEET-PG) is to compare among the candidates and weed out the ineligible among them, given the limited number of seats.
Justice Narasimha said that the Central Government is right in saying that NEET-PG exam is not a medium for admission to MBBS and the candidates are already doctors, yet the court would like to consider the impact of reducing the ‘cut-off’. Now the next hearing of the case will be on March 24.
The Director General of Health Services of the Health Ministry said in the affidavit that the decrease in the qualifying percentage for NEET-PG is not a new thing. Since the inception of NEET-PG in 2017, the cut off has been reduced in appropriate circumstances to prevent seats remaining vacant. In the academic year 2023 also, the qualifying percentage in all categories was reduced to zero. Therefore, the present decision is in line with the established policy and administrative procedure. The affidavit said that the total available seats for the academic session 2025-26 were approximately 70,000, which corresponds to the total number of candidates 2,24,029.
