With the Supreme Court’s nod to Karnataka’s plan to conduct a ‘special stray vacancy round’ to fill vacant MBBS seats, and the extension of the admission date till November 15 for undergraduate medical courses, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) will announce the schedule for the same on Thursday.
As many as 133 management quota medical seats have remained unfilled in Karnataka.
S. Ramya, Executive Director of the KEA, told The Hindu, “On the basis of the Supreme Court’s order and the guidelines by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, we are planning to conduct the special stray vacancy round to fill vacant medical seats in the State and the counselling schedule will be announced on Thursday evening.”
This year, 11,020 medical seats were allotted to Karnataka. The KEA completed four rounds of NEET counselling, including the mop-up round and the stray vacancy round, for the undergraduate medical seats and concluded the admission process on September 30, 2023. But 133 management quota medical seats remained unfilled after the stray vacancy round.
On the demand from medical seat aspirants and private medical college managements, the KEA approached the Supreme Court to conduct a special stray vacancy round to fill the remaining seats and sought directions to the Union government to extend the date of admission for undergraduate medical courses. The Hindu had reported this on October 29.
The Supreme Court agreed to this. According to the notice and the schedule of the Union Ministry of the Health and Family Welfare, Central counselling for the all-India quota seats, deemed/Central universities and institutes will be held up to November 7, and the State counselling will be held from November 7 to 10 through the KEA. November 15 is the last date for joining the college for those allotted seats in the Central and State counselling.
Caution deposit to be increased
According to the rules of the Union Ministry, all the registered candidates, irrespective of their category, are required to pay an additional refundable caution deposit (security deposit) of ₹50,000 for participation in the special stray vacancy round.
The caution deposit of the candidates who do not join their allotted seat in the special stray vacancy round will be forfeited and such candidates will be debarred from taking the NEET exam next year.
Despite the Union Ministry rules, the KEA is planning to get the total amount of the medical seat admission fee as caution deposit, whether it is ₹10 lakh or ₹40 lakh.
“Earlier, we fixed the caution deposit at ₹1 lakh for candidates who participated in the stray vacancy round. However, some candidates who opted for seats failed to report to the college, which resulted in the seats remaining vacant. To avoid incidents like this, we are planning to get the total amount of the medical seat admission fee as the caution deposit from candidates in the special stray vacancy round and it will be adjusted with their fee when they report to college. Then, only interested candidates will participate in this round,” said Ms. Ramya.
