‘How much can private hospitals pay?’ Supreme Court questions moves to give away 152 medical seats in Tamil Nadu

Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a plea to stop the transfer of 152 vacant in-service medical super specialty posts in Tamil Nadu to All India Quota (AIQ) for the academic year 2025-26.A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to the Centre, the Tamil Nadu government and other respondents in a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Medical Association. The court sought their responses and scheduled the matter for hearing in July.While hearing the case, the bench observed, “A government doctor, if (he or she) acquires skills, will serve public health better than a private doctor.” The court also noted that in-service candidates form a separate category because they work and study at the same time.The petition pertains to 152 in-service super-specialty vacancies in medical schools in Tamil Nadu that were allotted to the state for the academic year 2025-26. The association has requested the court to stop the authorities from allocating these seats to All India Quota until the counseling process reaches a later stage.It has also sought permission for in-service candidates in Tamil Nadu to compete for these seats during the third round of counseling or the clearing round if the qualifying percentile falls below 50 percent after the second round of AIQ counselling.The issue had also been raised earlier this month by Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin. In a June 4 letter to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, he urged the state government to take steps to prevent the 152 seats from being ceded to India’s Quota.Referring to the 2025 NEET super-specialty counseling process, Stalin said that 215 of the 430 available seats in Tamil Nadu had been reserved for serving government doctors. “Of these reserved seats, only 63 were filled during the counseling process and consequently 152 remained vacant after the conclusion of the second round of counseling,” he said.