Bombay HC refuses college-run MBBS rounds as 245 Maharashtra seats lie vacant
By TUF News Desk · Published 24 October 2026 · 4 min read
Fact-checked against 2+ independent sources · Editorial policy
245 MBBS seats in Maharashtra’s private medical colleges and private universities are still without students, and the colleges will not get to fill them on their own for now: the Bombay High Court has refused a plea for institute-level counselling during the ongoing NEET UG 2026 admissions, saying the request came too early.
The court did leave one door open: colleges may run manual counselling once centralised admissions are finished, and can go to the Supreme Court for an extension of the admission cut-off date and permission to fill whatever seats are left.
Why the colleges went to court
Maharashtra ended the institute-level round this year, so every admission, including the stray vacancy rounds, now goes through the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell’s centralised process. Two private colleges challenged that change: Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Palghar, before the court’s principal bench in Mumbai, and Parbhani Medical College (PMC), Parbhani, before its Aurangabad bench.
The colleges argued that the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015, does not prohibit institute-level counselling. Their worry was that leftover seats would stay empty, and the colleges would carry the loss.
Why the state opposed the plea
The Admission Regulating Authority told the court that separate waitlists for individual colleges would be hard to run: a higher-merit candidate could be picked by more than one college and fail to reach the college of choice in time. The regulator also cited complaints that colleges had not allowed selected candidates to join, and said monitoring an institute-level round was not possible. The state had scrapped the manual round after complaints about admission denial and excessive fee demands in past years.
The revised rules also penalise seat blocking: a candidate allotted a seat in the final round who does not join cannot take part in undergraduate medical and dental admissions in Maharashtra for the next two academic years.
The numbers behind the case
Of 3,299 MBBS seats in private medical colleges, 145 are still vacant. In two state private universities, 100 of 450 seats are unfilled, and VIMS Palghar alone accounts for 67 of them. Those numbers can still change as the remaining centralised rounds run.
The court noted earlier Supreme Court judgments, including Index Medical College versus the State of Madhya Pradesh and Dar-Us-Salam Educational Trust versus the Medical Council of India, on colleges filling vacant seats themselves. Even so, it held that this plea was premature: the colleges may yet fill their seats through the rounds still to come.
What students should do now
For candidates, nothing changes right away: admissions continue through the centralised process, and the official CET Cell portal remains the place to check round notices and seat positions. Students who get a seat should keep their papers ready; our admission documents checklist runs through the standard set. Those weighing a private medical seat against a public university place can read our central versus state versus private university guide. The petitions were filed in Mumbai, home to the University of Mumbai.
Counsel for PMC, MV Thorat, said the college plans to challenge the order in the Supreme Court, the forum the court pointed to for seats left vacant after the centralised rounds end.
Frequently asked questions
What did the Bombay High Court decide on institute-level MBBS counselling?
It refused a plea to allow institute-level counselling during the ongoing NEET UG 2026 admissions in Maharashtra, holding the plea premature because the centralised process is not over yet.
What is institute-level counselling?
It is a round in which individual medical colleges fill their own vacant seats after the centralised rounds, instead of seats being allotted by the state CET Cell.
How many MBBS seats are vacant in Maharashtra’s private colleges?
145 of 3,299 MBBS seats in private medical colleges and 100 of 450 seats in two private universities remain vacant, including 67 at Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences, Palghar.
What happens if MBBS seats are still vacant after centralised counselling ends?
The court said colleges may approach the Supreme Court for an extension of the admission cut-off date and permission to fill the seats left vacant.
Frequently asked questions
What did the Bombay High Court decide on institute-level MBBS counselling?
It refused a plea to allow institute-level counselling during the ongoing NEET UG 2026 admissions in Maharashtra, holding that the plea was premature because the centralised admission process is not over yet.
What is institute-level counselling?
It is a round in which individual medical colleges fill their own vacant seats after the centralised rounds, instead of seats being allotted through the state CET Cell's centralised admission process.
How many MBBS seats are vacant in Maharashtra's private colleges?
According to figures placed before the court, 145 of 3,299 MBBS seats in private medical colleges and 100 of 450 seats in two private universities remain vacant, including 67 at Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences, Palghar.
What happens if MBBS seats are still vacant after centralised counselling ends?
The court said colleges may approach the Supreme Court for an extension of the admission cut-off date and permission to fill the seats left vacant.
Sources: Medical Dialogues, Careers360