New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court New NEET PG Counselling Scheme 2023 saying that it deprives the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) candidates from their valid right of reservation.

It said that for academic year 2023-24, so far the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and National Medical Commission (NMC) have not lowered the minimum qualifying percentile criteria in any of the category for PwD candidates.

This decision of the MoHFW and NMC is also a clear departure from their last six years trend.

“Since 2017 from the start of NEET PG Exam to the last year NEET PG Exam 2022, MoHFW and NMC while invoking the proviso of Regulation 9 (3) of PG Medical Exam Regulation 2000 have always lowered the cut-off criteria every year in second round of PG Counselling in order to fill the vacant PG Seats,” stated the plea filed through advocates Rohit Singh and Ritu Reniwal.

It said that a lot of seats are still lying vacant in the current academic 2023-24, as per the website of the Medical Counselling Committee, MoHFW and NMC have not taken any decision to reduce the minimum percentile criteria in any of the category.

The plea anticipated that there is every likelihood that MoHFW and NMC will reduce the minimum percentile criteria before the start of the stray vacancy round because a lot of PG Seats are still lying vacant in the third round of PG Counselling.

“In the New NEET PG Counselling Scheme 2023, a seat Conversion Algorithm is provided in Chapter-3. According to this Algorithm all the PwD seats including PwD SC/ST/OBC will be transferred to their higher Non-PwD Category in third round of Counselling. Therefore, at the end of third round of counselling there will be no seats available in the category of PwD,” claimed the petition.

It said that this Conversion Algorithm is taking all the fundamental rights of petitioners herein to claim a seat in PwD category as the same was given to them in the reservation policy of NEET PG 2023 Exam.

“The persons with body disability form the weakest section of the society. It is the responsibility of the State to protect the Constitutional and Fundamental Rights of the disabled persons in every aspect of life as per the mandate of Article 21 & 14 of Constitution of India,” the petition said, adding that reservation in education and Public Employment to person with the body disability gives them an opportunity to live a dignified normal Life like their general counterparts.

The matter is likely to be mentioned for urgent listing on September 18 and 19.