SC agrees to hear plea against surrender of 152 vacant super speciality medical seats in Tamil Nadu

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea seeking to restrain authorities from surrendering 152 vacant in-service super speciality medical seats in Tamil Nadu for the academic year 2025-2026 to the all India quota.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the Centre and others, including the Tamil Nadu government, seeking their responses on the petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Officers Association.

"A government doctor, if (he or she) acquires skills, will serve public health better than a private doctor," the bench observed while hearing the plea.

The top court said in-service is a separate category for admission as such candidates are both working and studying.

The bench posted the matter for hearing in July.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner referred to the 152 vacant in-service super speciality medical seats in colleges within Tamil Nadu which were earmarked for the state for academic year 2025-2026.

The petitioner has sought a direction to restrain the authorities concerned from surrendering the 152 vacant medical seats to the all India quota until completion of the second round of all India quota counselling process.

The plea has also sought a direction to permit the in-service candidates in Tamil Nadu to compete for the 152 surrendered seats during third round of counselling or mop-up round if the percentile is reduced below 50 percent after the second round of all India counselling.

On June 4, Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Udhayanidhi Stalin had urged Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to take steps to prevent 152 super specialty medical seats in the state from being surrendered to the all India quota.

In a letter to the chief minister, the DMK leader had said that based on the 2025 NEET examination results, 215 of the 430 super specialty medical seats available for counselling in Tamil Nadu were reserved for in-service government doctors.

"Of these reserved seats, only 63 were filled during the counselling process and consequently, 152 seats remained vacant following the conclusion of the second round of counselling", he had added.