Chennai: Thousands of India’s most critically needed super-specialists are waiting for a Supreme Court hearing on May 29 that could break a months-long deadlock over NEET SS 2025 — while the hospitals that urgently need them grow increasingly short-staffed.The crisis has been building since April, when the Centre’s Medical Counselling Committee froze round 2 admissions for over 6,400 super-specialty vacancies nationwide, paralysed by a legal dispute.Tamil Nadu, the only state that reserves half its super-specialty seats exclusively for in-service government doctors, has refused to surrender seats that remain vacant after two rounds of counselling to the national pool. Of the 415 super-specialty seats in the state, the state counselling committee reserved 215 seats for in-service candidates as per a court order. It received 170 applications and released a rank list with 100 qualified candidates. After two rounds of counselling, 74 candidates were allotted seats, leaving seats in scarce specialties such as cardiothoracic surgery vacant. Officials in charge of admissions at the state Directorate of Medical Education told TOI that the state decided not to return the vacant seats, as in-service candidates would not benefit if the Centre lowered NEET SS qualifying cutoffs after the seats were surrendered. “If we surrender seats now and they lower the cutoff, this reservation is meaningless. It is a policy decision by Tamil Nadu,” the official argued.One non-service candidate moved the court, and the standoff has put the entire country’s super-specialty admissions on hold. The Medical Counselling Committee has said the seat matrix for the All India Round 2 cannot be finalised until the Supreme Court rules on whether Tamil Nadu’s contested seats revert to the All India Quota or remain in the state pool.On the ground, the consequences are mounting. The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) formally wrote to the Directorate General of Health Services on May 26, warning that teaching hospitals and tertiary care centres across India are facing critical shortages of super-specialty residents, directly compromising patient care and emergency services. Super-specialty training positions that were supposed to be filled in April remain vacant. Ward rounds are stretched. Complex cases are piling up. “If the MCC does not provide a definitive timeline for the commencement of counselling, the frustration among the medical fraternity will escalate into massive nationwide protests and legal escalations,” said the letter, signed by association chairman Dr. Jaydeep Kumar Choudhary.For the doctors waiting, the human cost is just as severe. Many postgraduate degree holders resigned from senior residency and consultant positions in March or April, confident that the official MCC schedule would hold. It did not. “We are unemployed for more than two months— not by choice, but by administrative deadlock,” said Dr. Rojin Mathew Sebastian, who represents the NEET SS applicant community. “We have paid a security deposit of ₹2 lakh each. It remains locked with counselling authorities, and there is no clarity on when we can begin training,” he said.
