New Delhi [India], June 23 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea seeking to declare 92 "in-service quota" seats of the state of Tamil Nadu surrendered to the All India quota of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Super Speciality (SS) 2020-21 as newly added seats.

A vacation bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia dismissed the plea filed by the four candidates.

The four candidates, in a petition filed through advocate Anjani Kumar Mishra, apprised the Court that they have joined in the first and second round of counselling and were holding better ranking in NEET SS All India examination but due to the paucity of seat availability in the prestigious government institute of Tamil Nadu, in the first and second round of All India Quota (AIQ) counselling they had to join the SS courses in government colleges of other states as well as the DNB courses which are considered below par in comparison to DM/MCh from renowned colleges of Tamil Nadu.

Under such constraints, they had no option but to accept the offer of MCC to join the SS courses allotted in the first and second rounds of counselling in AIQ of NEET SS, said in the petition.

The petitioner said that the extraordinary situation was created by the Tamil Nadu, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Union of India as they not only misled this court but also failed to practice equality and solemnity to the Super Speciality (SS) cadre of medical education whereby they granted admission in SS seats of All India Quota to non-meritorious (leftover) candidates in top-ranking medical colleges of the State of Tamil Nadu.

The petitioner has sought to declare 92 seats of the "in-service quota" of the Tamil Nadu surrendered to the All India Quota of NEET (SS) 2020-21 (Super Speciality) as newly added seats and were available only in accordance with the All India Ranking of candidates irrespective of their earlier joining in other rounds of counselling.

The petition has also sought to direct the respondent Centre and Director-General of Health Services to reshuffle the candidates of NEET SS-2021 selected against 92 newly added seats in the last additional round of counselling transferred to other Colleges as per their merits in the Special mop-up round and award the newly added seats to candidates of super speciality cadre according to their All India Ranking.

The petition also sought to cancel earlier mop-up counselling whereby 113 seats were filled and add those seats in the special mop-up round of Counselling including 92 newly added seats surrendered by the State of Tamil Nadu (in-service quota) allowing candidates of All India Quota to attend counselling for 92 newly added seats. (ANI)