The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has initiated the registration process for the stray round of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Post-Graduation (NEET-PG). Students may register through the official website, mcc.nic.in. There are a total of 733 seats available in the NEET PG stray counselling. The registration link for this round will remain active until March 8, with the option for choice filing and locking available on March 10.
The MCC will conduct the seat allotment process from March 10 to 11, and following the evaluation of choices, the final seat allotment for NEET PG 2024 counselling will be announced on March 12. The allotment will take into account factors such as seat availability and cut-off trends.
Candidates who are shortlisted must report to the designated institution for document verification by March 20. To prevent any vacancies due to non-joining or non-reporting, the Committee has lowered the NEET PG cut-off percentile for 2024 to the 5th percentile.
In a statement, the MCC noted: “In continuation of the NBEMS notice dated 06.01.2025 and following the directives from the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, as per letters No. U. 12021/05/2024-MEC dated 20th February 2025, the minimum qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2024 has been adjusted as follows.”
Earlier this year, the MCC had also reduced the cut-off for all categories. Students from the general and EWS categories who scored 15 percentile and above became eligible for counselling. The revised cut-off for eligibility in NEET PG counselling, announced in January, was set at 10 percentile and above for students from SC, ST, OBC, and PwD categories.
The NEET PG cut-off percentiles were established at the 50th for unreserved categories, 45th for PwD categories, and 40th for reserved category students.
Last year, the qualifying percentile for NEET PG was lowered to zero for all categories. Specifically, the cut-off for candidates in the general category was decreased from the 50th percentile to the 35th percentile in 2022. For unreserved Persons with Disabilities (PwD), the cut-off was reduced from the 45th percentile to the 20th percentile, while for candidates from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC), including PwD from these categories, the cut-off was lowered from the 40th percentile to the 20th percentile.
In light of this cut-off reduction, the Supreme Court also rejected a petition that sought to annul the third round of All India Quota (AIQ) counselling for NEET-PG 2024 and to initiate the process anew. A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran issued this ruling after the representative for the National Medical Commission (NMC) indicated that such an order would have significant repercussions across all states.
The petition argued that the scheduling of the AIQ round 3 counselling prior to the conclusion of the second round of state counselling resulted in candidates from Madhya Pradesh blocking seats, as the second round of state counselling had not yet been finalized.
