Reduction doesn't affect competence, candidates are licensed MBBS practitioners, the government argues in support of the NEET-PG negative cut-off.

On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that it would investigate the potential impact on postgraduate medical education standards of the significant decline in the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2025.Since cut-offs were dropped to zero percentile and negative marks, around one lakh students are now eligible for NEET PG counseling. After the qualifying cut-off was lowered, up to 95,913 more candidates were eligible for NEET PG 2025 counseling, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) told the Supreme Court of India.

Earlier, on February 4, a bench of justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe sent a notice to the Center requesting that it submit an affidavit outlining the rationale for the cut-offs. The examination body documented comprehensive category-by-category data explaining the effects of the updated percentile criteria in its response to the Public Interest Litigation contesting the notice dated January 13, 2026. The body claimed that the modification had significantly increased the number of qualified applicants for the continuing counseling process.