MCC counselling rules, explained simply

Counselling has a lot of rules, and some of them cost real money if you get them wrong. This page explains them the way you would explain them to someone clever who has never heard of counselling before. Short sentences, no jargon, and the official words in brackets when you will see them on the MCC website.

1. What is counselling?

The NEET-PG exam gives you a rank. A rank on its own is not a seat. Counselling is how a rank becomes a seat.

It works like a queue. You make a list of the seats you want, best first. Then a computer goes down the rank list, starting with rank 1. For each person, it looks at their list from the top and gives them the first seat that is still free. Then it moves to the next person. Nobody chooses you by hand, and nobody can jump the queue.

2. Who runs it?

MCC (the Medical Counselling Committee, part of the Directorate General of Health Services in the Union Health Ministry) runs counselling for the seats listed in the next section. Your state runs its own separate counselling for its state quota seats.

They are two different queues. Registering with MCC does not register you with your state, and the other way round. If you want both, you register for both.

3. Which seats MCC gives out

These seats are open to candidates from every state. You do not need to live in that state (“domicile free”).

• 50% of the seats in state government medical colleges, given up by the states to a national pool (the “All India Quota”, or AIQ).
• 50% of the seats at BHU and AMU, and 50% of the seats at Delhi University and the central institutes (VMMC & Safdarjung, ABVIMS & RML, ESIC Basaidarapur).
• All DNB seats (Diplomate of National Board), except in-service DNB seats, which MCC does not handle.
• All seats in deemed universities, including their NRI seats.

MCC also fills some seats that only certain people can take: the other 50% at Delhi University, BHU, AMU and the central institutes is kept for their own MBBS graduates (“internal quota”), and Armed Forces Medical Services seats have their own rules. AIIMS, JIPMER, PGIMER and a few other institutes use a different exam, INI-CET, and are not part of this counselling at all.

4. Can I take part?

You can register with MCC if all of these are true:

• NBEMS has declared you qualified in NEET-PG.
• You have finished, or will finish, your internship by the date MCC sets. For this academic year the 2026 bulletin treats 30 September 2026 as the internship completion date, and says the date is subject to any change by the NMC. (Delhi University’s internal quota names 31 July 2026 in the same bulletin; its eligibility rules are the university’s own.)
• You have a permanent or provisional registration with NMC or your state medical council.

You can register only once. Anyone caught registering twice is thrown out of counselling. Everything happens online on mcc.nic.in. MCC does not give seats offline, by recommendation, or by hand.

5. Reserved seats, in plain words

Think of the seats in each college and subject as a cake. Before anyone picks, the cake is cut into slices. Most of the cake is open to everybody. Some slices are kept for particular groups. For All India Quota, central university and government DNB seats, the slices are:

Four things people get wrong:

• PwD is a slice inside each slice, not a separate slice. The 5% PwD seats are taken from within the open, OBC, SC, ST and EWS seats (the bulletin calls this “horizontal” reservation). A candidate is, for example, OBC and PwD.
• A good rank can take an open seat. A reserved-category candidate whose rank is good enough can get an open seat, and can even move from a reserved seat to an open seat in the same college later.
• Your certificate must be the right one. OBC and EWS certificates must be in the central format, based on income for the financial year ending 31 March of the admission year. A PwD certificate is accepted only from MCC’s designated disability centres. No proper certificate at the college means no admission.
• Deemed universities and private DNB hospitals are different. Private DNB seats have no reservation. Deemed universities follow their own policy: 15% of their seats are NRI seats, and some have Jain or Muslim minority seats.

What happens to reserved seats nobody takes? In Round 3, MCC hands them on: an unfilled PwD seat goes back to its own group (SC-PwD becomes SC, and so on), an ST seat becomes SC, an SC seat becomes open, and an EWS seat becomes open. Unfilled NRI and minority seats at deemed universities become open too. This only happens once nobody eligible for the original slice is left.

6. The money: what you pay, and what you can lose

When you register, you pay two things:

• A registration fee. You never get this back.
• A security deposit. This is like a promise that you will take the seat seriously. You get it back, unless you break one of the rules below.

So the total you pay when you register is ₹26,000 (All India Quota, UR or EWS), ₹10,500 (All India Quota, SC, ST, OBC or PwD) or ₹2,05,000 (deemed universities, everyone). Only the deposit part can come back to you.

If you want both All India Quota and deemed university seats, you do not pay twice. You pay only the bigger deemed university amount.

You lose your security deposit if

• you are given a seat in Round 2, Round 3 or the stray vacancy round, and you do not go and join it; or
• your admission is cancelled because something you entered was wrong, or you could not show the documents the college asked for.

You get your security deposit back if

• you were not given any seat in any round; or
• you did not break any of the rules above.

Refunds start only after all rounds are over. MCC announces that counselling has finished, and the refund is started within 15 days and completed within 30 days of that announcement. It goes back only to the same bank account or card you paid from.

Money MCC does not decide

• Tuition fees, stipend, bond and rural service rules are set by each college and state. Deemed university fees can be many times a government college’s. Check the college’s own website before you add it to your list. MCC will not take complaints about fees after you are allotted.
• Charges a college takes when you upgrade or resign are the college’s rules. Ask before you join.
• DNB admission fees are collected by NBEMS after MCC allots the seat, not by MCC.

7. The four rounds, one at a time

MCC runs four rounds for All India Quota, central university, DNB and deemed university seats: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and the stray vacancy round. (Round 3 used to be called the “mop-up” round.) The schedule MCC published on 7 October 2026 lists exactly these four. The rules of each round apply only in that round.

The dates change every year. The NEET-PG counselling calendar lists each round’s registration, choice-locking, result and reporting dates, and marks the ones MCC has not confirmed yet.

New in 2026: Freeze or Float

When you get a seat in Round 1 or Round 2, the 2026 bulletin has you take one of two paths:

• Freeze: you are happy with the seat and do not want to upgrade. You report in person at the allotted institute with your original documents and join.
• Float: you want to try for a better seat in the next round. You give your willingness to upgrade on the MCC portal and upload your documents, and the institute checks them online, so you do not have to visit it. The bulletin asks everyone to upload the documents within 2 to 3 days of the result so there is time to fix any query.

After the Round 3 result, everyone allotted a Round 3 seat, and every Float candidate of Round 1 or Round 2 who did not get an upgrade, must report in person. The full detail, with bulletin page numbers, is in Freeze or Float.

Round 1

• Register, pay, fill your list of choices and lock it.
• If you get a seat and you like it, join it: in person with your original documents if you Freeze.
• Free exit. If you get a seat and do not want it, simply do not join. You keep your deposit and you can take part in Round 2. Round 1 is the only round with a free exit.
• Want something better but keep this seat as a backup? Choose Float: join the Round 1 seat online and give your willingness to upgrade on the portal. If you do not say yes to upgrading, you will not be considered for an upgrade in Round 2.

Round 2

• People who did not register in Round 1 can register now. Everyone makes a fresh list; your Round 1 list is thrown away.
• If Round 2 gives you a better seat, your Round 1 seat is cancelled straight away and given to someone else. You must be relieved online from the old college and join the new one.
• If you get a Round 2 seat and do not join it, you lose your security deposit.
• After joining a Round 2 seat, you can again say you are willing to upgrade in Round 3: upload your documents online first, then give your willingness.
• Changed your mind and want to keep your Round 1 seat? Do not fill any Round 2 choices, and it stays yours.

Round 3

• New people can register, and so can people who resigned from Round 2 or gave up their deposit in Round 2 (they pay again). Everyone makes a fresh list.
• Once you join a Round 3 seat, it is final. You cannot upgrade and you cannot resign.
• If you get a Round 3 seat and do not join it, you lose your deposit and you are out of all further MCC rounds.
• Unfilled reserved seats are handed on to other groups in this round (see section 5).
• Float candidates from Round 1 or Round 2 who did not get an upgrade, and everyone allotted in Round 3, must report in person.

Stray vacancy round

• This is the last round, for seats that are still empty. Everyone registers and fills choices again; your Round 3 list is not used.
• Only people who are not holding any seat can take part. People who were given a Round 3 seat and did not join it cannot.
• If you get a stray round seat, you must join it, or you lose your deposit.

8. MCC and your state talk to each other

MCC and the states share lists of who has joined a seat. This is how people stop blocking two seats at once. The 2026 bulletin says the data is shared after the states’ Round 3:

• If your name is on the list a state sends after its Round 3, you are removed from MCC’s stray vacancy round.
• Holding a seat in one counselling can cost you a place in the other, so read your state’s own notice for its rule on candidates who hold an MCC seat.

Holding an MCC seat when your state result comes out? The guide on whether to keep or resign your MCC seat for a state seat works it out in four questions, using the free exit and deposit rules above.

9. Filling and locking your choices

• There is no limit on the number of choices. MCC’s bulletin says it is advisable to fill in a total of 30 to 40.
• Put them in the order you really want them. The computer gives you the first free seat on your list, so a “safe” choice placed above your dream choice costs you the dream.
• Only add seats you would actually join. From Round 2 onwards, a seat you do not join costs your deposit.
• Lock your list before the deadline. If you do not, the computer locks whatever is saved at that moment. Once locked, nobody can change it, not even MCC.
• MCC’s old allotment results are a guide to what your rank might get. They are not a promise for this year. How to read a closing rank shows how to use them without fooling yourself, and the free NEET-PG college predictor checks your rank against MCC’s results from 2020 to 2025.

10. Joining your seat: what to carry

Go to the college in person with original documents. A letter saying your originals are kept at another college is not accepted.

• MCC allotment letter
• NEET-PG admit card and result or rank letter
• Proof of date of birth (Class 10 certificate or birth certificate)
• MBBS mark sheets for all three professional exams, and your MBBS degree or provisional certificate
• Internship completion certificate, or a certificate from your head of institution that you will finish it by the date MCC set (30 September 2026 for this year)
• Permanent or provisional medical registration certificate
• Photo ID: driving licence, voter ID, passport or Aadhaar
• If they apply to you: SC/ST, OBC-NCL or EWS certificate, PwD certificate from a designated centre, or NRI and OCI documents

Certificates in a regional language need a translation certified by a Gazetted Officer. If your name is spelt differently on different documents, carry an affidavit saying they are all yours. Colleges can ask for more, so check with the college before you travel. The NEET-PG counselling documents checklist gives the exact form each paper must be in, and the mistakes that have cost people their seat.

11. NRI and OCI candidates

• 15% of seats in deemed universities are NRI seats. NRI candidates can also take ordinary paid deemed seats.
• If you claim an NRI seat, you cannot also claim a Jain or Muslim minority seat.
• OCI cardholders are treated like Indian citizens for this counselling and can take open (UR) seats and NRI seats.
• NRI eligibility depends on who the NRI relative is and needs documents such as passport, visa or residence permit, an NRI certificate, a family-tree relationship certificate and a notarised sponsorship affidavit. For 2026-27, MCC issued a separate notice on who counts as NRI; you can find it on our NEET-PG updates page.

12. The rules on one card

• MCC and your state are separate. Register for both if you want both.
• Register once. Only online. Only on mcc.nic.in.
• Round 1 has a free exit. From Round 2 onwards, not joining a seat costs your deposit.
• To try for an upgrade while keeping your seat, choose Float: join it online and give your willingness to upgrade.
• A joined Round 3 seat is final: no upgrade, no resigning.
• The stray round is only for people not holding a seat.
• Lock your choices yourself, early, in the order you truly want.
• Carry originals. Check fees and bonds on the college’s website before you choose it.

13. Words you will see

• AIQ: All India Quota, the seats open to candidates from any state.
• Domicile: the state you officially belong to. MCC seats do not need it.
• Choice locking: freezing your list so it cannot be changed.
• Free exit: not joining a Round 1 seat, without losing money.
• Upgradation: moving to a better seat from your list in the next round.
• Freeze: you keep the allotted seat and do not try to upgrade. Float: you keep it for now and give your willingness to upgrade in the next round.
• Forfeiture: losing your security deposit.
• Stray vacancy round: the last round, for seats still empty after Round 3.
• Horizontal reservation: seats kept for a group (PwD) inside every other group.
• Conversion: handing an unfilled reserved seat on to another group in Round 3.
• Internal quota: seats a university keeps for its own MBBS graduates.

Where to check, and who to ask

The information bulletin on mcc.nic.in is the only document that counts. If anything on this page and the bulletin disagree, the bulletin wins. MCC’s 2026 bulletin lists its counselling helpline as 1800 1027637 and 0120-4073500, and financemcc@lifecarehll.com for refund queries. MCC does not message candidates one by one, so check its website yourself during the season. For dates and fresh notices as they come out, see NEET-PG updates.