Union Health Minister has announced that NEET-PG counselling will commence on January 12

On Sunday, January 9, 2022, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that NEET-PG counselling will commence on January 12.

Mandaviya remarked on his official Twitter account that this will give the country additional power in the fight against COVID-19.

Several doctors who have been waiting for admission to postgraduate programmes will be relieved by the news.

It's worth noting that the Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the blocked NEET-PG 2021 counselling process to resume, citing a "urgent need" to start the admission process based on the existing 27% OBC and 10% EWS quota in the All India Quota seats.

The petition challenging the applicability of the Rs 8 lakh annual income threshold for determining the economically weaker section (EWS) was heard for two days by a bench of justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna, who passed an interim judgement, saying "there is an urgent need to commence the process of counselling".

"Counselling on the basis of NEET-PG 2021 and NEET- UG 2021 shall be conducted by giving effect to the reservation as provided by the notice dated July 29, 2021, including the 27 per cent reservation for the OBC (other backward class) category and 10 per cent reservation for EWS category in the AIQ (All India Quota) seats," the bench said.

The interim order was issued on a batch of petitions filed by doctors challenging a notice issued by the Centre and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) on July 29, 2021, providing 27% reservation for OBCs and 10% for EWSs in the National Eligibility Cumulation Entrance Test (NEET-PG) admissions for medical courses for the academic year 2021-22.

The top court had ruled that for applicants who appeared for the NEET-PG 2021 and NEET-UG (Under Graduate) 2021 tests, the criteria for determining EWS issued by the office memorandum (OM) 2019, including the Rs 8 lakh annual income threshold, will be utilised to determine the EWS group.

However, the bench stated that the legitimacy of the Pandey Committee's criteria for identifying EWS will be dependent to the final outcome of the petitions in the future.

"The petitions shall be listed for final hearing on the validity of the EWS criteria as recommended by the Pandey Committee in the third week of March 2022," the bench said.

The top court stated that the representations made over a two-day period necessitate a comprehensive interim order on the applicability of the EWS criteria as published by OM 2019 for NEET-PG 2021.

"The formulation of the reasons in the interim order on the EWS reservation would take some time. The validity of the OBC reservation in the AIQ seats in NEET-PG and NEET-UG is upheld for reasons to follow," the bench said.

The order was also welcomed by the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), which had recently opposed the delay in the start of NEET-PG counselling. It had also petitioned the Supreme Court, claiming that the admission process must begin immediately.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court during the two-day hearing, which began on Wednesday, that adding OBC and EWS reservations after the NEET-PG exam notice was not "changing the rules of the game" in the middle of the game.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was defending the Centre, justified the applicability of the Rs 8 lakh income threshold for the EWS group, saying the decision was reached after thorough consideration by the Ministry of Social Justice.

According to an assurance given to the top court, the Centre formed a three-member committee on November 30 last year, consisting of Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to the Centre, to revisit the criteria for determining EWS.

According to the committee's report, which was delivered to the Centre on December 31 last year, "The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of Rs 8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words, only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation."