Himachal Pradesh NEET category list and reservations

The Himachal Pradesh NEET category list is wider than most states. Beyond the familiar SC, ST, OBC and EWS reservations, Atal Medical & Research University (AMRU) sets aside seats for several Himachal-specific groups: widows and wards of ex-servicemen and serving defence personnel, wards of freedom fighters, candidates from notified backward areas, single girl children, children of Jammu & Kashmir migrants, children of Tibetan refugees, and persons with benchmark disabilities. Reservation is given college-wise as a fixed number of seats per college, not as a single statewide percentage, and almost every reserved seat is meant only for bonafide Himachalis. The figures below follow the 2025 prospectus; confirm the current numbers in the AMRU prospectus each cycle.

How reservation is allotted in Himachal Pradesh

Each government medical college had 120 MBBS seats in 2025. Fifteen per cent (18 seats) go to the All India Quota run by the MCC. The rest form the 85% state quota, which AMRU splits at each college into a reserved Group-A and an unreserved Group-B, plus NRI seats. Because the split is fixed per college rather than as a state-wide ratio, the cleanest way to read it is by an individual college. Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, makes a good example:

Category (IGMC Shimla, 2025)	Seats
All India Quota (15%)	18
Scheduled Caste	15
Scheduled Tribe	7
Other Backward Classes	4
Widows / Wards of Ex-servicemen	1
Wards / Wives of Defence Personnel	1
Ward of Freedom Fighter	1
Backward Area	3
Persons with Disability (PwD)	5
Single Girl Child	1
Children of J&K Migrants	—
Children of Tibetan Refugees	1
Economically Weaker Sections (EWS)	10
Unreserved / General (Group-B)	51
NRI quota	2

The reserved counts shift a little college to college. SC seats ran 15 per college at the larger government medical colleges; ST about 7; OBC 2 to 4; EWS 10 (with 7 at the smaller state-quota pool in Ner-Chowk); and PwD 5, set by law at 5% of the sanctioned intake. The defence, freedom-fighter and single-girl-child seats were typically one each per college, and J&K migrant and Tibetan-refugee seats appeared at only some colleges. The two rules that are genuinely percentage-based are the 15% All India Quota and the 5% PwD reservation; the rest are absolute seat counts the state may revise before the first round.

The standard categories

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe. For candidates from castes or tribes recognised as SC or ST for Himachal Pradesh, on the prescribed Appendix-2 format. SC and ST seats are inter-transferable: if one category has no eligible candidate, those seats can move to the other.

Other Backward Classes. For candidates on the Himachal OBC list who are not in the creamy layer, certified on the Appendix-3 format by the SDM, Executive Magistrate or Tehsildar after verification from revenue records. An HP OBC certificate works for the state quota only; the All India Quota needs a central-list OBC-NCL certificate in the central format.

Economically Weaker Sections. For candidates not covered by SC, ST or OBC. Himachal’s EWS ceiling is stricter than the central one: gross annual family income must be below ₹4 lakh (not the central ₹8 lakh), counting income from all sources for the financial year before application. A family is excluded from EWS regardless of income if it owns more than 1 hectare of agricultural land (or 500 sq m of urban land), a residential house above 2,500 sq ft, is an income-tax payee, or has a regular or contract government employee. The certificate goes on the Appendix-12 format from the HP competent authority.

Himachal-specific reserved seats

These are the categories that make Himachal’s roster unusual. Each is filled on NEET merit drawn within that category, and each needs its own prescribed certificate.

Widows / wards of ex-servicemen, and wards / wives of defence personnel. Ex-serviceman means retired personnel of the Army, Air Force or Navy; defence personnel means those serving. Seats are filled strictly by the priority order set out in the prospectus (Appendix-20), using the Appendix-4 or Appendix-5 certificate. The candidate must be a bonafide Himachali.

Ward of freedom fighter. For children and grandchildren on the paternal side of a person declared a freedom fighter by the HP Government. The benefit extends to sons and daughters on the maternal side only where the freedom fighter had no son. Certified on Appendix-6.

Backward area. For permanent residents of areas notified as backward by the HP Government, on Appendix-7. The candidate must have passed at least two of the primary, middle, matric, +1 or +2 examinations from schools located in that backward area. If no such candidate is available the seat goes first to any backward-area candidate, and then to the general category. A candidate who studied in a non-backward-area school and moved to a backward-area school mid-session is not eligible.

Single girl child. For a candidate who is the single girl child of her parents with no sibling, certified on Appendix-9, subject to the normal state-quota eligibility.

Children of Jammu & Kashmir migrants. For children of people forced to leave J&K due to terrorism and now residing or rehabilitated elsewhere, certified by the District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner on Appendix-10.

Children of Tibetan refugees. For wards of Tibetan refugees, against seats reserved for them, on Appendix-11. Sponsorship by the Tibetan Government in Exile is mandatory.

Persons with disability (PwD). Five per cent of the sanctioned intake, for candidates with benchmark disabilities under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, against the disabilities specified by the NMC for MBBS (Appendix-21) and the DCI for BDS (Appendix-22). The state certificate (Appendix-8) must come from the medical board of IGMC Shimla or Dr. RPGMC Kangra at Tanda and be issued within three months before the first round. A state PwD certificate does not cover an AIQ PwD claim; you need a separate MCC-designated-centre certificate for that.

IRDP / BPL. Reserved seats exist for candidates from Integrated Rural Development Programme and Below Poverty Line families, certified on Appendix-12(b) and signed by the Block Development Officer. These also carry the lowest fees; at the private MM Medical College, Solan, the IRDP/BPL first-year state-quota fee was ₹53,240. BPL students in government colleges pay no tuition fee at all, but must submit a fresh BPL certificate each year to keep the waiver.

The bonafide Himachali condition

Almost all of these reserved seats are restricted to bonafide Himachalis. The Bonafide Himachali certificate, on the Appendix-1 format from the SDM, Executive Magistrate or Tehsildar of the area your parents belong to, is the document that gives you access to them. Only management-quota and NRI seats carry no bonafide Himachali requirement. A candidate who qualifies for the state quota merely as a child of a non-Himachali central government employee posted in HP is treated as unreserved, because the reserved seats are meant for bonafide Himachalis.

Picking one category, and what happens to unfilled seats

You may indicate only one reserved category in the application form, and once submitted it cannot be changed. Choosing a category does not stop you being selected on general combined merit: a reserved-category candidate (other than J&K migrant, Tibetan refugee and NRI) who is good enough to be allotted on the unreserved Group-B merit is counted against the unreserved seats, not against the reserved quota.

Unfilled reserved Group-A seats are treated as unreserved and merged into Group-B when no eligible reserved candidate is available. Vacant J&K migrant and Tibetan-refugee seats go to Group-B on NEET merit. Vacant NRI and PwD seats are filled in the third round from the unreserved merit list at state-quota fees if no eligible category candidate is found, and leftover NRI seats convert to unreserved on overall state merit for the third round only.

Certificate dates to watch

The dates differ by category. HP Bonafide, SC and ST certificates must be issued on or after 1 January 2015. OBC, EWS and the special-category certificates (ex-serviceman, defence, freedom fighter, backward area, single girl child, J&K migrant, Tibetan refugee) must be on or after 1 July 2023. The IRDP/BPL certificate must be issued within six months. Every certificate must be signed, not countersigned, and on the prescribed Appendix format. The full list of certificates, formats and issuing authorities is set out in a separate documents guide.

How Himachal categories map to AIQ

Himachal state quota	All India Quota equivalent
Unreserved / General	UR (Unreserved)
OBC (HP list, non-creamy-layer)	OBC-NCL (central list, central format)
SC	SC
ST	ST
EWS (income below ₹4 lakh, HP criteria)	EWS (income below ₹8 lakh, central criteria)
Backward Area / Single Girl Child / Tibetan Refugee / J&K Migrant / Freedom Fighter / Ex-serviceman / Defence / IRDP-BPL	No direct equivalent

If you hold both an HP category certificate and a valid central one, use each in its own counselling. The Himachal OBC and EWS certificates are accepted for the state quota; for AIQ you need the central-list OBC-NCL certificate and the central EWS criteria. The Himachal-specific seats have no central counterpart at all.