A candidate who scored just 9 out of 800 in NEET-PG 2025-26 Entrance Examination has been given a postgraduate medical seat which has stirred up quite a controversy in the medical field. The admission was done in the third round of counselling for private medical colleges under the management quota, indicating a major decline in the qualifying standards to fill thousands of vacant seats across India.
Seats Allotted at Scoring 9/800
This student was offered the MD Pharmacology seat at the Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College in Perambalur, Tamil Nadu under Management Quota in the Third Round, organised by the Tamil Nadu state selection committee on Monday, February 16, 2026. This candidate was reportedly the last person to be allotted a seat in this category for the current academic session.
This was not an isolated incident; there were around 21 Doctors who scored less than 100 marks and were given PG seats under the management quota in the same round. One more candidate who scored 25 was offered a seat for MD Community Medicine at the very same college.
Why the Cut-offs Plunged?
The historically low admissions are a direct result of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) drastically reducing qualifying cut-offs for the 2025–26 session.
- General/EWS Category: Reduced from the 50th percentile (276 marks) to the 7th percentile (103 marks).
- SC/ST/OBC Categories: Reduced from the 40th percentile (235 marks) to the 0th percentile (-40 marks).
Authorities aimed to fill over 18,000 vacant PG seats that remained unoccupied after initial rounds. Critics argue that high fees in private institutions — often ranging from ₹20 lakh to over ₹1 crore per year — are the primary reason these seats remain vacant, forcing the government to lower standards to attract anyone who can afford them.
Seats Allotted at Negative Scores
The revised policy allowed candidates with even negative scores to participate in counselling, leading to allotments in prestigious government institutions as well:
| Specialty | College | Score |
| MD Pharmacology | Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan (TN) | 9 |
| MD Forensic Medicine | Osmania Medical College (TS) | 12 |
| MS Orthopaedics | Govt Medical College, Rohtak | 4 |
| MD Physiology | Govt Medical College (TN) | -12 |
Outrage and Concerns from Medical Bodies
Medical associations including the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have strongly opposed such admissions and referred to them as the “murder of merit”.
Senior doctors warns that the low-scoring candidates barely passing or even scoring negative marks may not have the basic knowledge in medical science to safely undergo specialized training, thereby endangering the health of patients.
Experts argue that lowering benchmarks so drastically solves the vacancy problem on paper but creates a long-term crisis of poorly trained specialists.
Those against the system believe that presently it serves the interests of private medical colleges financially rather than clinically, since most of these low-score seats are in reality only purchasable by paying the heavy management fees.
If the candidates currently allotted decide not to take up the seats, official have suggested that cut-offs might be lowered even more in subsequent “stray vacancy” rounds.
