SC dismisses plea to add in-service quota seats of NEET super speciality 2021 surrendered by TN

PTI, Jun 23, 2022, 1:15 PM IST

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking a direction to add 92 “in-service quota seats” of NEET super specialty 2021 surrendered by Tamil Nadu in the newly added seats and make them available to all candidates irrespective of their joining in earlier rounds.

A vacation bench of Justices C T Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the top court on May 9 had allowed a mop-up round for all the unfilled/stray/vacant super-specialty seats subject to the condition that any doctor who had joined seats earlier will not be allowed to join.

”We cannot go against the judgment. When there’s a specific direction, we cannot. When the law is laid down by this court, now merely because you’re not a party to the judgment… ”We don’t think that we should proceed with the contentions raised by the petitioner any further in light of the order passed by this court…We have no hesitation to hold that petitioner is not entitled to seek such prayer in this direction. In short, such writ petition must fail and is dismissed,” the bench said.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Kaviyarasan M P and others seeking a direction to add 92 “in-service quota seats” of NEET super specialty 2021 surrendered by Tamil Nadu in the newly added seats and make them available to all candidates irrespective of their joining in earlier rounds.

On May 9, 2022, the counsel appearing on behalf of Tamil Nadu had told the apex court that the 92 unfilled seats of the in-service quota of the State shall be surrendered this year to the All India Quota (AIQ). Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati had stated that a mop-up round will be held for completing the process of admission to super specialty medical courses, occasioned by the surrender of 92 seats by Tamil Nadu to the AIQ.

The top court had then said, ”The mop-up round shall be held for all the unfilled/stray/vacant super-specialty seats subject to the condition that any doctor who has joined a seat in the earlier round shall not be eligible for participating in the mop-up round. Since the mop round is being held, a suitable extension of time may be granted for completing the admissions.”