Medical Students Enrolled to Colleges Offline to Face Threat of Admission Cancellation

Medical candidates who were assigned MBBS seats for the current batch by individual colleges rather than the state or central authorities via online counselling in 2023 may have their admissions cancelled. On January 9, the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued a notice stating that it had identified a problem with student admissions to medical colleges for the academic year 2023-24.

The Commission mandated that even the remaining seats allotted during the last “stray vacancy or mop-up rounds” be allocated online using the centralised merit list. This mandate was intended to end the practice of “seat buying,” in which individual colleges allocated remaining seats to students lower on the merit list in exchange for higher fees. The Commission is currently verifying records of 1.04 lakh admissions to determine which were done offline.

“It is informed that even though such students whose names are reflected in the final list of 1,04,891 admitted students in MBBS course for the academic year 2023-24, the admissions will still be cancelled at a later stage once the verification of admission process is completed by the NMC,” the official notice by the apex medical education regulator reads.

To determine whether the admissions were “genuine,” the Commission wrote to all counselling bodies on Tuesday, requesting information about students admitted via the centralised merit list.

Meanwhile, the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) conducts counselling for 15 per cent of all MBBS seats available under the central quota. While, the remaining 85 per cent of seats are counselled by state authorities such as the Directorate of Health Services (DoHS), the Directorate of Medical Education (DoME), or other similar designated bodies.

The final list of candidates will be compared to the lists sent by the counselling authorities in order to eliminate “fake” admissions. There are three rounds of counselling at the Central and State levels before a mop-up round for the remaining seats is held.

Additionally, the Commission has issued new regulations for post-graduate medical admissions, emphasising that admissions will only be made through common counselling based on the merit lists of the respective exams.

In 2023, the Commission invalidated the admission of nearly 600 medical candidates for enrolling after the deadline or through individual colleges rather than counselling agencies. A special mop-up round was held in response to court orders to fill the over 1,000 seats that remained vacant at the time.