The Delhi High Court has taken notice of a petition filed by several medical aspirants who are challenging the decision to lower the qualifying percentile for NEET-PG 2023 to 'zero,' which means deducting 40 marks for all categories.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav has requested a reply from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the National Board of Examination, and the Medical Counselling Committee in response to the petition.

The petition has been filed by three MBBS doctors who appeared for the NEET PG exam on March 5 and were actively involved in the counselling process. They are contesting a notification released by the Union Government on September 20, which reduced the qualifying percentile for the examination.

The plea argues that by lowering the eligibility criteria to zero percentile, equivalent to a deduction of 40 marks, the fundamental objective of conducting the NEET PG exam is undermined. Furthermore, it diminishes the essence of a "National Eligibility cum Entrance test" if the core concept of "eligibility" is diluted in such a manner.

The petitioners assert that they submitted a representation to the Union Ministry, seeking clarification regarding the contested order and urging its withdrawal. Nevertheless, they did not receive any response to their request.

According to the plea, the contested order is unfair to candidates who had chosen not to participate in the second round of the counselling process. This is because the order retroactively affects them. These candidates had skipped the second round in the hope of securing better seats in the traditional Mop Up round, which used to take place each year. However, the new third round of seat allocation is significantly different and offers fewer options compared to the previous Mop Up Round. Consequently, the plea argues that the contested order has disrupted the strategic decisions made by candidates in hindsight.