The Karnataka government has approached the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union government to allow the State to hold a second round of stray seat counselling to fill 133 vacant medical seats.
The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court in this regard and the case is expected to come up for hearing on October 30. However, the classes for first year undergraduate medical courses have already begun a month ago, leaving seat aspirants worried.
Management quota
This year, 11,020 medical seats were allotted to Karnataka. The KEA, which is the seat allotment agency of the State, has completed four rounds of NEET counselling, including mop-up round and stray vacancy round for the undergraduate medical seats and completed the admission process on September 30, 2023.
Earlier, the stray vacancy round was the final round for medical seat allotment and all pending seats were filled in this round. But this year, while all other quota seats were filled, 133 management quota seats have remained unfilled after the stray vacancy round as well.
Acting on demand by seat aspirants and private medical college managements, the KEA has now decided to conduct a second stray vacancy round for remaining seats and had written to the Union government seeking permission for the same. However, with appropriate response, KEA has now moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union government to allow the State to do a second round of stray seat counselling to fill vacant medical seats.
“This year a high number of management quota medical seats have remained unfilled after the stray vacancy round. Due to the high cost of fees and various other issues, many students did not opt for management quota seats in the initial rounds of seat allotment. But now students are interested as these are the only seats available. So we have approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to conduct a second round of stray seat counselling,” said S. Ramya, Executive Director, KEA.
Aspirants worried
According to the National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines, the last date for the undergraduate medical course admission was September 30, 2023, and the classes started from October 1 in colleges across the State. Seat aspirants are now worried about the classes missed.
“At the initial rounds of NEET counselling I was waiting for a government quota seat and in the stray vacancy round I expected a private quota seat, but to no avail. Now the only option is to opt for a management quota seat. Now KEA has approached the Supreme Court and any further delay in seat allotment will lead to loss of classes, as classes have already begun a month ago,” said Nisha, one of the seat aspirants from Bengaluru.
