NEET-UG counselling in four rounds from July third week, Centre tells Supreme Court

NEET-UG 2024 counselling to begin in July with four rounds; candidature cancellation for malpractice, seat allocation details explained.

The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that counselling process for the controversy-hit NEET-UG 2024 will be conducted in four rounds beginning from the third week of July.

The candidature of a student found to be a beneficiary of any malpractice would be cancelled at any stage during the counselling process or even afterwards, the Union government through the Higher Education department of the Ministry of Education said in a 44-page affidavit.

The government has banked on a data analytics report of IIT (Madras) counted out “mass malpractice” in the exam, which has come under a spate of allegations of question paper leaks, impersonation and other illegalities.

The Supreme Court had said in its July 8 order that a considered decision at the policy level would have to be taken by the government on the status of the counselling if NTA and Centre were to undertake an exercise to identify any further beneficiaries of the question paper leakage.

CBI, which is investigating the NEET-UG paper leakage, has already made several arrests.

Counselling for the undergraduate medical seats across the seats is conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee constituted under the Ministry of Health for the all India quota. The counselling process for State quota seats is undertaken by the respective State counselling authorities.

Allocation of seats would depend on the timing of the cancellation of seats if certain candidates are found to be beneficiaries of malpractices.