All India Quota counselling: round-by-round exit rules

The MCC sets the template the rest of the country borrows from. Get the All India Quota rules straight and most state rulebooks read as variations on them. The core promise is simple: Round 1 is a free look, and from Round 2 the deposit is at risk. The part families most often get wrong is at the very end, and it is the opposite of what the rumour says.

This page covers the central counselling run by the Medical Counselling Committee: the 15% All India Quota carved out of every state government college, plus 100% of the seats in deemed and central universities, AIIMS, JIPMER and ESIC. Delhi's DU and IPU central institutes also run through the MCC and have their own page.

Who runs it

The MCC, under the Directorate General of Health Services, conducts counselling at mcc.nic.in. It covers 15% of all government college seats nationwide (domicile-free), 100% of deemed-university seats, the central universities (Delhi University colleges, AMU, BHU including their institutional quota), AIIMS, JIPMER and ESIC. AFMC runs through the MCC for registration only.

Security deposit, by category

The deposit depends on what you are chasing, and the government slab is halved for reserved categories. The deemed-university deposit is flat.

The ₹2,00,000 deemed deposit is the one that catches families out. It applies the moment you add a single deemed college to your choices, and it is the same for everyone. Do not confuse it with the postgraduate deemed deposit of ₹3,00,000 — different exam.

How the rounds work

The MCC runs Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 (mop-up) and a stray-vacancy round. Each round reopens choice filling.

Round 1. Allotment is by NEET rank and category. On an allotment you can report and freeze, report and opt to upgrade in Round 2, or not report at all. Not reporting is a free exit, named as such in the bulletin: the deposit stays safe and you continue to Round 2. Not being allotted also carries you forward with no action needed. Because nothing is at stake, Round 1 is for your real targets, not backups.

Round 2. The free look ends. A fresh allotment you do not join forfeits the deposit, up to two lakh for a deemed aspirant. If you joined in Round 1 and opted to upgrade, and the upgrade lands, your Round 1 seat is cancelled the instant the new one is allotted; you collect a relieving letter and report to the new college, with no claim left on the old seat.

Round 3, the mop-up. Fresh registrations reopen for those who missed earlier rounds. Upgrades and resignations are over; an allotment must be joined. Skipping one forfeits the deposit and removes you from the remaining rounds of this cycle. After Round 3 the MCC shares its list of allotted candidates with the states, and a name appearing on both a central and a state list is removed from the All India stray round. One student cannot park two seats into the final round.

Stray-vacancy round. The last fill, for candidates holding no seat anywhere. An allotment carries the strongest reporting duty of the cycle.

The stray-round myth

The most damaging claim in circulation is that skipping a stray-vacancy seat bans you from next year's NEET. For MBBS and BDS that is false. The 2025 bulletin's penalty for stray-round non-joining is forfeiture of the security deposit and removal from any remaining rounds, nothing more. The one-year exam debarment belongs to NEET postgraduate rules, not the undergraduate stream. Do not let it scare you out of a round you could use. Still, only list stray colleges you are ready to join with fees arranged; a forfeited two-lakh deemed deposit is its own lesson.

Reservation and eligibility

The 15% All India Quota carries central reservation: SC 15%, ST 7.5%, OBC non-creamy-layer 27%, EWS 10%, and PwD 5% as a horizontal quota across all categories. AIQ government seats are domicile-free; you compete nationally on rank.

Two category points matter. First, OBC reservation in the AIQ uses the central OBC list, not your state list — a caste backward in your state but absent from the central list does not get OBC benefit here. Second, and the one that surprises families: deemed universities carry no reservation at all. The bulletin is explicit that there is no SC, ST, OBC, PwD or even EWS reservation in deemed seats. Those seats are filled purely on NEET rank, apart from minority and NRI sub-quotas at specific institutions, and they are domicile-free.

Central universities contribute 15% to the AIQ pool (domicile-free) and keep 85% as an institutional or state quota; Delhi University's 85% needs Class 11 and 12 studied in Delhi, covered on the Delhi page.

What this means for your choices

Treat Round 1 as the round to aim high, since a free exit protects an allotment you walk away from. Treat the deemed-university choice as a financial decision, not a casual add: the ₹2,00,000 sits at risk from Round 2, and with no reservation, a reserved-category candidate's rank advantage disappears inside deemed seats. Run the MCC calendar against your state calendar on a single sheet, and settle which seat you are keeping before the mop-up stage, because that is when the lists are shared and the choice is made for you.