Counselling process for NEET-UG, PG courses 2024 delayed, may begin later

The counselling schedule for NEET UG and PG is announced by MCC on its website on the basis of completion of the exam process and finalisation of seat matrix by National Medical Commission (NMC). In the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, the counselling for UG seats commenced on 19/1/2022, 11/10/2022 and 20/7/2023 respectively, a press release by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed.

For the year 2024, NMC has communicated its schedule for finalisation of the seat matrix for UG and PG seats in the last week of June indicating that it will finalise the UG seat matrix by the third week of July and PG seat matrix by mid-August. MCC will accordingly notify the counselling schedule.

Therefore, it is clarified that MCC has not yet notified the counselling schedule for the year 2024, the release added.

The development comes after the Supreme Court refused to delay the NEET UG counselling scheduled to start on July 6.

The Central government has told the Supreme Court that, in the absence of any proof of a large-scale breach of confidentiality in the NEET-UG 2024 examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination.

Scrapping the NEET-UG exam held on May 5 entirely would "seriously jeopardize" the lakhs of honest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024, said the Ministry of Education.

The Centre has filed an affidavit on a batch of petitions pending before the apex court seeking direction to recall NEET-UG 2024 results and conduct the examination afresh, alleging paper leakage and malpractices in the test held.

The Supreme Court will hear the cases on July 8.

Responding to the petitions, the Ministry said that prayers raised in the petitions for the cancellation of the exam and the re-test based on "surmises" and "conjectures" must be rejected.

It also informed the apex court that a high-level committee has been constituted to suggest measures for effective, smooth, and transparent conduct of the examinations by the National Testing Agency (NTA). (ANI)