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16 Nov 2025, 2:26 am

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking direction to the National Medical Commission (NMC) to devise a mechanism so that no postgraduate seats go vacant in pre-clinical and para-clinical branches across colleges.

According to the cause list uploaded in the apex court’s website, a three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and N V Anjaria, will hear the plea.

The petition has sought a direction from the top court to the commission to produce data of how many seats have remained vacant in the last five years in the postgraduate pre-clinical and para-clinical branches. The petition stressed concerns about unfilled seats in these programmes, which are crucial for strengthening medical education and public health services.

“The issue of unused medical seats has been repeatedly flagged before the apex court. The plea aims to push for a long-term corrective mechanism rather than temporary fixes. By seeking five-year vacancy data, it attempts to establish a clear pattern of how many seats, especially in pre-clinical and para-clinical branches, have remained unutilised,” stated the plea.

The petition further highlited that analysing this data will help policymakers and regulators identify gaps in admission processes, course demand, and institutional planning.

Earlier while hearing a separate plea in January this year, the apex court had remarked that seats in medical courses cannot remain vacant, and that steps must be taken to prevent such wastage of resources and training opportunities.

The court had earlier directed the Centre to hold discussions with all relevant stakeholders, including states, to find solutions to this recurring problem. These directions came against the backdrop of repeated instances where seats, particularly in specialised branches, were left unfilled even after multiple rounds of counselling.

In April 2023, the top court flagged the issue of super-speciality seats in medical courses remaining unfilled.