India's postgraduate medical admissions are set for their biggest rule change in years. The Supreme Court was informed on Tuesday, November 3 that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has in principle decided to adopt a rank-based merit system for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) and NEET Super Speciality (NEET-SS) examinations, doing away with the existing percentile-based format, LiveLaw reported.

Source: LiveLaw

A 12-member expert committee of the Union Government, constituted on July 23, 2026 and chaired by the Director General of Health Services, Dr Loveneesh G. Krishna, placed its report before a bench of Justices P. S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe during the hearing of pleas challenging the reduction of the cut-off percentile in NEET-PG 2025-26, Medical Dialogues reported. The NMC Secretary had written to the DGHS on October 1, 2026 informing it of the proposal, which is under consideration by the Commission.

Source: Medical Dialogues

Under the proposed system, only ranks will be given to candidates and no percentile marks will be declared in the results; counselling for NEET-PG and NEET-SS will be conducted on the rank-based merit list alone. A draft regulation will be issued by the NMC shortly for stakeholder comments, the committee told the Court. The change is proposed to take effect from the 2027 admission cycle, Education Times reported.

Source: Education Times

The controversy began with a January 13, 2026 notice of the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) reducing the minimum qualifying percentile for the third round of NEET-PG 2025-26 counselling: for General and EWS candidates the cut-off fell from the 50th percentile (276 of 800 marks) to the 7th percentile (103 marks), for General PwBD candidates to the 5th percentile (90 marks), and for SC, ST and OBC candidates, including PwBD candidates in those categories, to the 0th percentile — a revised cut-off score of minus 40, under which even candidates with negative marks became eligible for counselling.

Petitioners challenged those reductions in the Supreme Court, arguing that repeated sharp cuts to qualifying percentiles undermined minimum standards in postgraduate medical education. In May 2026 the Court sought a permanent mechanism to address recurring cut-off reductions, and the Centre constituted the expert committee; its report also records the roles of the Medical Counselling Committee, the NMC, NBEMS, the National Testing Agency and state counselling authorities, and proposes counselling reforms for upcoming years.

The Court has taken the committee's report on record, directed that copies be given to counsel for all parties and allowed the petitioners time to file their responses; it has not ruled on the merits of the challenge. Appearing for a petitioner, advocate Satyam Singh Rajput argued that instead of justifying the drastic cut, the committee had proposed changing the marking system itself. The final rules, the stakeholder consultation and coordination with state counselling bodies and medical colleges are still to come before any rollout.