Tamil Nadu's Selection Committee has issued a notice for in-service candidates seeking Super Speciality DM and MCh seats in government medical colleges. Notification No.4092/SCSII(1)/2025, dated 21 September 2026, from the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, Kilpauk, Chennai, says the Committee is displaying the seat matrix of Super Speciality seats received from DGHS, New Delhi, after a Supreme Court order reduced the qualifying percentile for the stray round of NEET-SS 2025 counselling to the 30th percentile.

The notice covers only government medical college seats for in-service candidates for the 2025-2026 session. It said applications under the reduced percentile would be called for shortly, so the 21 September PDF is a seat matrix and advance notice rather than an application form.

What the vacancy matrix shows

The state quota stray round vacancy list published the same day shows 43 seats across 12 government medical colleges. By speciality, there are 10 seats in D.M. Neurology, 10 in M.Ch. Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery, 10 in M.Ch. Paediatric Surgery, 7 in M.Ch. Neuro-Surgery, 4 in M.Ch. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and one each in D.M. Hepatology and D.M. Medical Oncology.

Madras Medical College, Chennai, has the most, with 13 seats, including seven in Cardio Vascular and Thoracic Surgery and five in Paediatric Surgery. Tirunelveli Medical College has seven, and Thanjavur Medical College has five. The other colleges on the list are Stanley, Madurai, Kilpauk, Chengalpattu, Coimbatore, Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Salem, Kanyakumari, K.A.P. Viswanatham Government Medical College Trichy and Thoothukudi, each with one to three seats.

The application call and the stray round schedule

A follow-up notice dated 23 September cited an NBEMS notice of 22 September. The NBEMS notice said the NEET-SS 2025 qualifying percentile had been cut from the 50th to the 30th percentile for all specialities, following a Ministry of Health letter and a Supreme Court order in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 771 of 2026. NBEMS said group ranks declared on 23 January 2026 are unchanged and no fresh scorecards will be issued. The 30th percentile cut-off out of 600 is, for example, 175 for the Medical Group and 243 for the Surgical Group. The Selection Committee took online applications from 11:30 AM on 23 September to 11:59 PM on 24 September. Candidates who had already applied under an earlier percentile did not need to apply again.

The tentative stray round schedule put registration and payment from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on 26 September, choice filling and locking from 4:00 PM on 26 September to 12 noon on 27 September, and the result on 27 September. Allotment orders can be downloaded until 3:00 PM on 28 September, and reporting closes at 5:00 PM that day.

Rules for the stray round

The schedule says the counselling is only for in-service candidates of Tamil Nadu, under a Supreme Court order of 2 December 2022 in W.P. (C) No. 53/2022. Selection is on NEET-SS rank, and there is no reservation in Super Speciality courses. New registrants pay a non-refundable Rs 1,000 processing fee. Candidates already holding a Round 1 or Round 2 seat must vacate it if they are allotted a stray round seat. Displayed vacancies may change because of upgrades.

Allotted candidates pay the tuition fee before downloading the allotment order. An in-service candidate who discontinues after counselling ends must pay a discontinuation fee of Rs 20,00,000 by demand draft and will not be relieved, or get back original certificates, until it is paid.

The full details are in the Selection Committee notification dated 21 September 2026.