SRINAGAR, J&K: The National Testing Authority (NTA) started the application process for NEET-UG on 7 February. The NEET-UG examination is scheduled for 4 May and the results will be declared on June 14. For aspirants in J&K, the outcome of the entire process is uncertain as the Reservation Rules are challenged in court. The Government has also constituted a committee to relook into the proportions that each category of aspirants is entitled to.
The J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) carries out counselling for admission to various colleges in UT. It is likely to use the existing reservation rules to distribute the seats among various categories of students.
Join NEET News 2025 The Seat Matrix for the upcoming academic year has not been uploaded yet by the BOPEE. However, the previous seat matrix had 40 percent of the seats of MBBS and BDS reserved for Open Merit.
Candidates not belonging to a reserved category have cried foul after results of various exams and selections showed a diminishing number of those from open merit. The proportion of seats under each category of students changed drastically when the J&K Government brought changes to the Reservation Policy in December 2023. The reservation quotas were amended by passing the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill in December 2023.
Out of 1007 seats for J&K, 967 are available for J&K students, the remaining for candidates from Ladakh UT. Of these, 40 percent of seats – 387 are unreserved. That results in 194 and 193 for male and female candidates. The seats for ST increased from 10 percent to 20 percent over the past year – 193 seats for ST after the amended Reservation Policy. In addition, 97 seats are reserved for EWS aspirants. For BDS, of the 108 seats, 42 are unreserved, the remaining distributed over various categories.
A three-member sub-committee headed by the Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare, and Education was constituted in December 2024 by the J&K Government to relook at the Reservation Policy. The Committee met once in January this year.
