Maharashtra NEET UG CAP Round 1 choice filling open till 29 August 5:30 PM

Preference filling for Maharashtra’s NEET UG CAP Round 1 is already open, and it does not close until 29 August, 5:30 PM server time. That is the timetable in State CET Cell Notice No. 10, dated 19 August 2026. A separate notice issued on 26 August tells candidates they can unlock and edit those preferences after a court-directed revision of the final merit list.

Notice No. 10 revised Group A (MBBS/BDS) CAP-1 after the Medical Counselling Committee extended All India Quota counselling. Final merit list and seat matrix were listed for 25 August. The Cell has since posted a provisional Group A seat matrix PDF printed on 25 August, covering government, government-aided, corporation, private and minority medical and dental colleges. Online choice filling runs 26–29 August, 5:30 PM. CAP Round 1 allotment is listed for 30 August. Physical joining with original documents and a fee demand draft runs 31 August to 4 September, 5:30 PM.

The CET Cell login for this cycle is medical2026.mahacet.org. cetcell.mahacet.org points candidates to the course admission portal rather than hosting the preference form itself. Year-old bookmarked URLs from earlier UG sessions are a common trap.

The 26–29 August clock

Candidates on the final merit list log in with their application ID and password. Notice No. 12, dated 26 August, sets the working rules: fill a minimum of one college and a maximum of all colleges; private colleges have State Quota and Institute quota with different fees — pick the correct quota; some colleges offer both MBBS and BDS, so check the course before submitting; rank preferences from most wanted to least.

Lock the form after filling. A locked form can be unlocked with an OTP on the registered mobile and email and edited any number of times until 29 August, 5:30 PM. The last saved or locked set is what goes to allotment. If a candidate never locks, the last filled preferences are auto-saved at the end of the window. No change is allowed after that. The Cell will not undo a wrong list filled from the candidate’s own login.

Why Notice 12 is sitting on top of Notice 10

NTA had withheld results of some candidates. The Bombay and Delhi High Courts, Notice No. 12 says, directed that the petitioner candidates’ results be declared and that they be allowed into the ongoing CAP. The courts directed that those results be shared by 27 August 2026. Once the data reaches the CET Cell, those candidates will be included and “the Final Merit list” will change. A revised final merit list “will be declared on the website.” No clock time is printed for that revised file, and this desk is not inventing one.

Because preferences can be edited until 29 August, 5:30 PM, candidates already in the process can wait for that revised merit list and then reorder choices if they wish. They should not assume the 25 August merit PDF is the last word if the Cell uploads a revised file after the court-directed data arrives.

Joining after 30 August

Allotment is listed for 30 August. Physical joining is 31 August to 4 September, 5:30 PM, with originals and a fee DD. Cheque is allowed only on bank holidays, to be replaced by DD the next working day; missing that replacement can cancel the admission. The 19 August notice says the schedule can still move if MCC, AACCC, the Centre, the State or a court so directs.

This is undergraduate MBBS/BDS Group A CAP, not the NEET MDS CAP already notified on a different calendar, and not LLB or MHT CET first-engineering CAP. Newly registered candidates’ grievance window closed at 5:00 PM on 24 August; that window is not being reopened by Notice 12.

As of 27 August 2026, the live task is preference filling through 29 August, 5:30 PM, with one eye on a possible revised final merit list after the court-directed result data.