CHENNAI: A doctor who secured just 9 out of 800 marks in the NEET-PG entrance examination has been allotted a postgraduate medical seat in a private college under the management quota for the 2025–26 academic session. The seat was allotted by the state selection committee during the third round of counselling held on Monday.
Officials said that if 1,902 candidates allotted seats under the government quota and 643 under the management quota fail to join, the cut-offs could drop even further in the next round. The development has sparked sharp criticism from medical associations, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), with senior doctors warning that such admissions set a troubling precedent for medical education.
Admission to PG medical courses is based on merit in NEET-PG, a 3.3-hour computer-based examination comprising 200 multiple-choice questions carrying four marks each, with a negative marking of one mark for every incorrect answer. Recently, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences reduced the qualifying cut-off for the 2025–26 session to 103 out of 800. For SC, ST and OBC candidates, the qualifying score was brought down to minus 40.
The reduction was aimed at filling over 9,000 vacant PG seats nationwide. However, it triggered a backlash after the Centre’s medical counselling committee allotted seats to candidates with negative scores under the All India Quota in government medical colleges and deemed universities.
On Monday, the state selection committee also released the third-round counselling results for admissions to government and self-financing medical colleges. Under the government quota, a candidate with 42 marks secured MD Community Medicine at Sri Muthukumaran Medical College, Chennai, while another with 71 marks got MD Forensic Medicine at Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital, Samayapuram.
Under the service quota—reserved for doctors serving in government hospitals—the cut-off for MS Orthopaedics at ESI Medical College, Chennai, was 87 marks. At least seven candidates with scores below 100 were allotted PG seats.
The cut-off fell even lower under the management quota. The lowest score was 9 marks for MD Pharmacology at Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College, Perambalur. A candidate with 25 marks secured MD Community Medicine at the same institution. Overall, at least 21 doctors with scores below 100 were allotted postgraduate seats, intensifying concerns within the medical fraternity.(Agency)
