NEET PG 2025: Supreme Court Rejects Special Stray Round Plea; Over 1,100 Seats to Remain Vacant

In an important update for NEET PG 2025 aspirants, the Supreme Court has rejected the plea to conduct an additional Special Stray Vacancy Round. With this decision, the counselling process for this year is now officially over.

No More Counselling Rounds

The Court has clearly stated that no further rounds will be conducted. This means:

• ● Counselling for NEET PG 2025 has ended
• ● Vacant PG medical seats will remain unfilled

This comes as a disappointment for many students who were hoping for one last chance to secure a seat.

Background: Seats Remained Vacant Even After Cut-Off Reduction

Earlier, the government had already tried to solve this issue by lowering the qualifying percentile.

• ●UR category: Above 7th percentile
• ● UR-PwD: Above 5th percentile
• ● SC/ST/OBC: All candidates were made eligible

The goal was simple — to increase the number of eligible candidates and fill all available seats.

However, even after this major relaxation, around 1,100+ seats still remained vacant after the Stray Round.

What Is the Real Problem?

This situation raises an important question:

If eligibility is not the issue, then why are seats still vacant?

Experts believe the problem may be deeper and linked to factors like:

• ● High fees in private and deemed colleges
• ● Bond and service conditions
• ● Low stipend in some colleges
• ● Location preferences of students
• ● Poor counselling choices or lack of guidance
• 
  

Because of these reasons, many candidates prefer to skip seats instead of accepting less favorable options.

NEET Will Continue

There were also discussions about removing NEET as a system. But the government has clearly said that NEET will continue as the common entrance exam.

It is supported by the NMC Act and is considered important for maintaining transparency and fairness in medical admissions.

What Should Students Learn From This?

For NEET PG 2025 aspirants, this is the final closure of this year’s admission cycle.

For future aspirants, one thing is clear:

- Cracking NEET is not enough — proper counselling strategy is equally important.

The Supreme Court’s decision, along with the vacant seat data, shows that the issue is not just about exam difficulty or cut-offs.

The real challenge lies in the counselling system and how students make their choices.

Improving awareness, guidance, and decision-making during counselling will be key to solving this problem in the future.