The National Medical Commission has approved 171 additional postgraduate medical seats for the 2025–26 academic year after reviewing appeals filed by medical colleges against earlier decisions of the Medical Assessment and Rating Board. The approval, granted by the NMC’s First Appeal Committee in December 2025, applies to multiple specialties across 27 institutions in several states. The commission has directed counselling authorities to include these seats in the ongoing NEET PG 2025 counselling process without waiting for formal Letters of Permission, ensuring that admissions proceed without delay.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) has approved 171 additional postgraduate (PG) medical seats for the 2025–26 academic year after reviewing appeals submitted by medical colleges. The approval was granted through the First Appeal Committee and communicated via an official notification issued in December 2025. The decision directly impacts the ongoing NEET PG 2025 counselling process, with counselling authorities instructed to incorporate the additional seats without delay.
The approval was issued by the National Medical Commission, India’s statutory body for regulating medical education and professional standards. The First Appeal Committee, constituted under Section 28(5) of the NMC Act, 2019, reviewed appeals filed by institutions contesting earlier seat determinations made by the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB).
A total of 171 postgraduate seats have been sanctioned across 27 medical colleges. These seats span clinical, para-clinical, and pre-clinical disciplines, including General Medicine, General Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Radiodiagnosis, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine, and foundational medical sciences such as Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Pharmacology, and Microbiology.
The approval increases the sanctioned intake capacity of the respective institutions for the current academic cycle.
The First Appeal Committee convened on December 22 and 23, 2025, and the decision applies to admissions for the 2025–26 academic session. The additional seats have been approved for medical colleges located across multiple states and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, and Arunachal Pradesh.
Medical colleges apply annually for approval of postgraduate seats based on compliance with regulatory requirements such as infrastructure, faculty strength, and clinical workload. While MARB conducts the initial assessment, institutions are permitted to seek review through the appeal mechanism provided under the NMC Act.
In the present case, the First Appeal Committee found merit in several appeals, leading to the approval of seats that were not included in the initial allocation.
The NMC has instructed the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and relevant state counselling authorities to immediately integrate the newly approved seats into the NEET PG counselling matrix. The commission clarified that counselling should proceed without waiting for the issuance of formal Letters of Permission (LoPs), which will be issued separately.
This directive is intended to prevent administrative delays and ensure adherence to the existing counselling schedule.
The addition of 171 seats slightly expands the postgraduate training capacity during the current admission cycle. For NEET PG aspirants, this regulatory update translates into an increased number of available seats across several specialties and institutions.
From a system perspective, the decision aligns regulatory oversight with institutional capacity while maintaining continuity in postgraduate medical admissions.
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