The mounting controversy over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) cut-offs calls for a reasoned national debate informed by compassion and rationality. Critics emphasise that merit is compromised, but an equally important question is whether reservations, rather than empowering certain groups to make a quantum leap in their professional prospects, disempower and demoralise them.
A case from Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College is instructive in this regard. Having entered the college via quota in 2014, a student failed all papers in the first year of the MBBS course and did not retake the exams.[1] He refused the counselling and special coaching offered by faculty members and took no further interest in studies. However, he continued to stay in the college hostel, causing inconvenience to other students. The issue has been referred to the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The mismatch between the student’s aptitude and his access to a prized medical seat is clear. A student who fails in all papers in the first year itself is unlikely to clear the MBBS course. The realisation that a quota is not a free pass and one has to study hard must have been dispiriting; shunning further academic engagement suggests deep depression. Instead of letting him wallow in the hostel for eleven years, his parents should have helped him graduate from another discipline and move on with his life. This is a life sacrificed at the altar of “positive discrimination”.
In Kerala, the state government waived a ₹10 lakh discontinuation penalty for an MBBS student at Government Medical College, Thrissur (Manjeri), who failed the first-year exam four times.[2] The exemption was granted on compassionate grounds to prevent further adverse effects on the 2021-batch student’s career. These high fees are intended to prevent seat-blocking.
Enrolments for the 2025-26 academic year have alarmed medical professionals, as too many low scorers (who are unlikely to pass) have been admitted to postgraduate medical courses. A student who scored 1/800 (rank 229,981) was admitted to the prestigious MS Orthopaedics course at Kamineni Academy of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, via Telangana’s state quota counselling.[3]
Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences records (Feb. 9, 2026) show that 20 candidates with scores between 1 and 99 out of a total possible 800 marks were admitted to PG medical seats across Telangana. A candidate with 12 marks was admitted to MD Forensic Medicine, and another with 24 marks to MD Pathology at Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad. The Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad, enrolled candidates with 59 marks in MD Radiodiagnosis, 74 marks in MD Pharmacology, and 91 marks in MS Orthopaedics. The Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, admitted a candidate with 32 marks to the MD Pathology program.
The point is not to cite statistics but to warn about the chasm between academic performance and the allocation of PG seats. The quota is not a magic wand, and lowering minimum qualifying percentiles to rock bottom (-40) has frightened the highest echelons of the medical fraternity and society at large. Admissions were made under the Competent Authority Quota, especially the In-Service Category, which runs concurrently with the centrally administered All India Quota.
The problem is not new. A student ranked AIR 2 in NEET PG 2021 could not secure admission to MD Dermatology at MAMC Delhi or KEM Mumbai because the new reservation policy reduced the number of Open Category seats to zero.[4] However, a 19-year-old who scored 530/720 in NEET 2024 and was denied a seat due to the Madhya Pradesh government’s policy to block the EWS quota in private colleges was granted provisional MBBS admission in the EWS category by the Supreme Court, invoking Article 142.[5]
The NEET PG 2025 cut-off has raised serious concerns over medical merit, patient safety, healthcare standards, public trust, and the future of postgraduate clinical training in India.[6] The national outrage presents an opportunity to examine the issue dispassionately.
In NEET PG 2025, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) revised the qualifying percentiles: Unreserved candidates qualified above the 7th percentile (103 from 275), and Persons with Disabilities above the 5th percentile. However, all quota applicants were declared qualified, regardless of score (-40 from 235). Previously, general category candidates needed to score at least the 50th percentile, and Reserved Categories the 40th percentile, to be eligible for counselling.
This raises a question: did candidates who scored zero in the NEET PG2025 genuinely earn their basic MBBS degree? It certainly merits investigation. The Supreme Court of India was stunned by the development.[7] A Senior Advocate argued that in postgraduate admissions, marks cannot be relaxed, except for exceptional reasons, and even then, only to a limited extent of 5–6 percentiles. If the minimum qualifying standard is the 50th percentile, it cannot be reduced to minus 40 percentile.
The government’s argument that the cut-off was lowered to prevent massive seat wastage misses the wood for the trees. If, out of the 29,476 PG seats offered through the MCC, 9,621 remained vacant after Round 2, and nearly 20,000 seats nationwide were vacant, the problem is too many seats versus eligible candidates. The vacant seats must be cancelled because they are not intended to provide high fees to colleges (especially private colleges). There is no guarantee that candidates allotted PG seats will pass the exams in these specialised disciplines. Compromising quality would harm the international reputation of Indian doctors and the country’s revenues from medical tourism from Africa, Arab and Asian countries.
Dr. Lakshya Mittal, President of United Doctors Front (UDF), said they have challenged the decision in the Supreme Court because it only benefits private medical college mafias. Allowing doctors with negative marks to enter PG training undermines merit and threatens patient safety.[8]
The controversy has brought a strange anomaly to light. Almost 140 EWS candidates (annual family income under Rs 8 lakh) have chosen PG seats in specialities from the management and NRI quotas of private medical colleges, where tuition fees range from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore per year.[9] This raises questions about the credibility of EWS certificates.
Apparently, these candidates apply for the PG NEET exam as EWS candidates, and when they secure low ranks, they become NRIs and pay fees in crores or take management quota seats, which can also cost more than ₹1 crore for the course. In this manner, an EWS candidate whose NEET rank was lower than 1.1L took an NRI quota seat for MD Dermatology at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belagavi (annual tuition fees for NRIs over ₹1cr/yr for the speciality).
Whether paid or free/subsidised, there can be no doubt that the academic standards of those seeking PG admissions must be raised by improving undergraduate training. Slashing academic standards cannot be the way ahead. The creeping spread of caste quotas across all disciplines needs to be revisited, and certain professions must be caste-neutral to attract the best available talent in the nation. There must be an immediate end to the varna-based disequilibrium in academic qualifications for the same specialisation.
Notes
1] 11 years in MBBS first year: BRD medical college faces rare academic case, India Today Education Desk, Dec 28, 2025.
2] Kerala waives Rs 10 lakh discontinuation penalty for MBBS student who failed 4 attempts to clear exam, Medical Dialogues, Nov 9, 2025.
3] Student With 1 Mark In NEET-PG Gets MS Orthopaedics Seat, Telangana’s Cutoff Drops To 0th Percentile: Report, NDTV Profit, Feb 12, 2026.
4] NEET PG AIR 2 Doesn’t Get His Desired College, ED Times blog, January 31, 2022.
5] ‘Need 10 Minutes’: 19-Year-Old Who Argued And Won His Case In Top Court, NDTV, Feb 13, 2026.
6] Doctors with single-digit scores? NEET PG cut-off row sparks patient safety fears, India Today Education Desk, Feb 11, 2026.
7] Compromising standards? Supreme Court “stunned” by reduction in NEET-PG 2025 cut-off, Bar and Bench, Feb 06, 2026.
8] Lowering of criteria for medicine PG challenged in India’s apex court, HealthQuill, January 16, 2026.
9] EWS candidates take PG med courses with Rs 1 cr fees, Times of India, Nov 25, 2025.
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