Mumbai: After an overall admission rate of 98.79% in MBBS and BDS courses, Maharashtra has a total of 138 seats lying vacant after completing all rounds of NEET UG Counselling 2026. This includes 84 MBBS seats and 54 BDS seats that remained unfilled for the academic year 2026-27.

According to the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, a total of 11,293 out of 11,431 available MBBS and BDS seats were filled during this year's counselling process.

While 8,730 of the 8,814 available MBBS seats were filled across 70 medical colleges, recording an admission rate of 99.04%, BDS admissions stood at 2,563 out of 2,617 seats across 29 dental colleges, with an admission rate of 97.93%.

Maharashtra had achieved 100% MBBS seat occupancy in each of the previous three academic years. However, the 2026-27 admission cycle witnessed 84 MBBS seats remaining vacant after the completion of counselling.

Previously, the State CET Cell conducted three rounds of the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) and one stray vacancy round. After this, the remaining vacant seats were filled at the institutional level. During the process, several complaints were made by students to the CET Cell.

However, following complaints from students regarding institution-level admissions, the State Medical Education Ministry decided to bring all rounds of MBBS and BDS admissions under the CET Cell.

State Cell conducted the admissions for MBBS and BDS courses this year through six rounds of admission: three CAP and three stray vacancy rounds. As per Careers 360 report, the press release stated that no student complaints were made during the MBBS and BDS admissions

Bombay HC decision

Medical Dialogues had reported that the Bombay High Court declined to allow a private medical college to conduct institution-level counselling to fill vacant MBBS seats during the ongoing NEET UG 2026 admission process in Maharashtra, observing that the plea was premature as the state counselling process is still underway.

The court, however, recognised the legal position that medical colleges may be permitted to fill vacant seats through manual counselling after centralised admissions. It said the college could approach the Supreme Court to seek an extension of the admission deadline and permission to fill any seats left vacant after the state completes its admission process.

According to the figures placed in the matter, 145 of the 3,299 MBBS seats in private medical colleges and 100 of the 450 seats in two private universities in the state remain vacant. Vedanta Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Palghar, one of the petitioners, accounts for 67 vacant seats.

This came after two private medical colleges approached the court, challenging the state government's decision to discontinue institute-level admissions, seeking permission to fill vacant MBBS and postgraduate medical seats through college-level counselling after centralised admission rounds end.

The colleges are Vedantaa Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Palghar, and Parbhani Medical College (PMC), Parbhani. They had filed separate petitions before the Bombay High Court's principal bench in Mumbai and its Aurangabad bench, respectively.

As per the rules, institute-level counselling allows private medical colleges to fill seats that remain vacant after the regular rounds of NEET UG and NEET PG counselling. This is different from the Centralised Admission Process (CAP), which is conducted by the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

However, the Maharashtra government scrapped the institutional round for private medical college MBBS admissions in July this year.

MBBS admissions over the last four years

BDS admissions in last four years