Nagpur PwD student challenges NEET PG seat conversion into gen category in Delhi HC | Nagpur News – Times of India

NAGPUR: A Nagpur student has approached Delhi High Court, seeking its intervention to safeguard NEET PG seats reserved for PwD (persons with benchmark disabilities) candidates, which are being converted into general category seats in the third round of counselling.
The petitioner Saket Agrawal, along with eight other PwD candidates, filed a petition through counsel Rohit Singh and Mahendra Kumavat, challenging this conversion and requested that reserved seats remain available until the stray vacancy round of counselling. Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav issued notice to respondents, including Union of India, Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and others.
Considering the urgency expressed by petitioners, who contended that seats if not filled up, would be converted to general category, the registry was directed to list this case before the vacation bench on December 30. The respondents were directed to file a reply before the next hearing date, the judge said.
The petitioners voiced concerns over non-availability of eligible PwD candidates for the reserved seats after first two rounds of NEET PG counselling, attributing this to the Central govt’s decision not to relax minimum percentile criteria for the current academic session. With the third round of counselling set to commence on December 26, they apprehend that any relaxation in minimum percentile criteria announced after this round will not benefit PwD candidates, as the vacant reserved seats would have already been converted to general category seats.
The petitioners further emphasised that despite a substantial number of vacant NEET PG seats in this academic session, the central govt is yet to relax the minimum percentile criteria required for eligibility. They fear if the govt decides to lower the eligibility criteria after the third round, they may not benefit from the relaxation since the counselling committee might convert the unoccupied PwD seats into general category seats by then.