Deepti · September 15, 2026 
Kerala NEET PG Counselling 2026 decides which MD or MS seat you get in the state. The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE), Kerala runs this process on cee.kerala.gov.in. Every step, from registration to final seat allotment, follows a fixed prospectus that CEE publishes each year.
This guide breaks down eligibility, registration, fees, seat matrix, reservation rules, choice filling and every counselling round for Kerala NEET PG Counselling 2026.
What Is Kerala NEET PG Counselling?
CEE Kerala conducts Kerala NEET PG Counselling for admission to MD and MS seats in Government Medical Colleges and the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) Thiruvananthapuram. The process runs through a Centralised Allotment Process (CAP), a single-window system that allots seats based on rank, category and submitted options.
CEE’s role goes beyond just the State Quota. It handles State Quota seats in Government Medical Colleges and RCC, and it separately conducts common counselling for the entire PG Medical Degree seat pool in self-financing medical colleges, including Minority and NRI quota seats there. The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) in Delhi conducts counselling only for the All India Quota (AIQ) seats. Kerala’s structure is not a flat 50-50 split between CEE and MCC — CEE’s reach covers a much wider seat pool once self-financing colleges are included.
The official 2025-26 prospectus states that Government Medical Colleges offered 884 PG Degree seats, RCC Thiruvananthapuram offered 16 seats, and self-financing colleges offered 681 seats in the previous session — a combined 1,581 seats. Treat this only as a previous-session reference point, not a confirmed 2026 figure. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26)
A quick note on the 2026 cycle: CEE Kerala has not published a separate PG Medical 2026 prospectus or candidate portal. The live portal still shows PG Medical 2025 (pgm2025), with Phase 3 and stray-vacancy activity for the current session still on record. Candidates should treat 2026-specific dates, percentiles and seat numbers as unconfirmed until CEE publishes the fresh notification on cee.kerala.gov.in.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Authority and Official Website
The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, Kerala conducts Kerala NEET PG Counselling under the Health & Family Welfare Department. The official website is cee.kerala.gov.in, and the candidate portal opens as a year-specific link (pgm2025, and pgm2026 once notified). Candidates should bookmark this site rather than rely on aggregator pages for dates or results.
How to Apply for Kerala NEET PG Counselling: Registration Process
Kerala NEET PG counselling registration follows five mandatory steps on the CEE portal:
- Registration — Enter your NEET PG application number and date of birth. The system generates a unique CEE application number and asks you to set a password.
- Fill Application — Complete personal, academic and category details, then use “Save & Finalize” to lock the form.
- Pay Application Fee — Pay online only. General and Service Quota candidates pay ₹1,000; SC/ST candidates pay ₹500.
- Upload Documents — Upload your signature and required certificates in the specified format and file size.
- Print Acknowledgement — Download and keep the acknowledgement page for future reference.
CEE does not accept applications sent by post, fax or email. If you want a step-by-step walkthrough that also covers All India Quota registration, our NEET PG counselling registration guide explains both processes side by side.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Eligibility Criteria
A candidate must meet these conditions to join Kerala NEET PG Counselling:
- Hold an MBBS degree or provisional pass certificate recognised by the NMC.
- Register permanently or provisionally with the NMC or a State Medical Council.
- Complete one year of compulsory internship, or complete it before the deadline CEE sets in its notification.
- Clear NEET PG at the required percentile for your category.
Qualifying percentile by category, as fixed in the 2025-26 prospectus (carry these over only as the latest verified reference until CEE confirms 2026 figures):
| Category | Minimum Percentile |
|---|---|
| General / EWS | 50th |
| SC / ST / SEBC / SC-PwD / ST-PwD / SEBC-PwD | 40th |
| General(UR)-PwD / EWS-PwD | 45th |
Kerala set no upper age limit for general candidates in 2025-26. Medical Education Service Quota candidates faced a 49-year cap, and Health Service or Insurance Medical Service Quota candidates faced a 47-year cap, both calculated as of 31 December of the notification year. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26)
For Personalized Guidance
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Domicile Rules
Domicile decides which benefits you can claim, not whether you can apply. Three groups qualify under the nativity clause:
- Indian citizens of Kerala origin, proven through a birth record or Village Officer certificate.
- OCI cardholders, who compete for General category and NRI seats but cannot claim any reservation.
- Non-Keralite candidates who completed their MBBS in a Kerala medical college. They can apply for General Merit seats but must execute a one-year bond to serve as Senior Resident in Kerala, and they cannot claim communal or special reservation benefits.
This third category often confuses out-of-state MBBS graduates who studied in Kerala. Reading the nativity clause in the official prospectus before applying avoids a rejected claim later.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Fees: Application, Deposit and Registration Charges
Kerala NEET PG counselling fees come in three separate layers, and mixing them up is a common mistake:
- Application Fee (paid during registration)
- General and Service Quota: ₹1,000
- SC/ST and fee-concession categories: ₹500
- Security Deposit (paid during Phase 1 option registration, refundable)
- General: ₹10,000
- SC/ST/OEC and other fee-concession candidates: ₹5,000
- Phase 3 (Final Round) Registration Fee (adjusted against tuition or refunded if unallotted)
- Equal to the annual tuition fee if you opt only for a Government college seat
- ₹1,00,000 if you also opt for a private self-financing college seat
- Half these amounts for SC/ST/OEC and fee-concession candidates
The annual tuition fee for a PG Degree seat in a Government Medical College stands at ₹57,890, with ₹11,580 miscellaneous fee and ₹11,580 refundable caution deposit, totalling ₹81,050 before university fees. (Source: G.O.(Ms)No.92/2023/H&FWD, cited in CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26) SC/ST and OEC candidates allotted merit or reserved seats pay no fees at all.
Self-financing college fees get notified separately before each CAP cycle, and RCC fees appear on rcctvm.gov.in.
Kerala NEET PG Seat Matrix 2026
CEE Kerala had not published the 2026 state quota seat matrix or category-wise distribution at the time of writing. The 2025-26 prospectus lists these annexures as “will be notified separately,” which is standard practice before each admission cycle begins.
Until CEE releases the fresh matrix, the closest verified reference point remains last session’s combined total of 1,581 seats across Government Medical Colleges, RCC and self-financing colleges. Check the seat distribution page on cee.kerala.gov.in/pgm2025 (or the 2026 equivalent once live) for confirmed, college-wise numbers before finalising your options.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Reservation Categories
Out of total State Quota seats in Government Medical Colleges, 10% go to Service Candidates. CEE distributes the remaining seats across SC, ST, SEBC and EWS reservations, plus a horizontal PwD share:
| Reservation Category | Share |
|---|---|
| Scheduled Castes (SC) | 8% |
| Scheduled Tribes (ST) | 2% |
| SEBC (total) | 27% |
| — Ezhava (EZ) | 8% |
| — Muslim (MU) | 7% |
| — Other Backward Hindu (BH) | 7% |
| — Latin Catholic & Anglo Indian (LA) | 3% |
| — Other Backward Christian (BX) | 1% |
| — Kudumbi (KU) | 1% |
| EWS in General Category | 10% |
| Persons with Disabilities (PwD) | 5%, horizontal |
The six SEBC communities are not separate reservations sitting alongside SC, ST and EWS. They together make up the single 27% SEBC block that the prospectus specifies, so don’t add EZ, MU, BH, LA, BX and KU on top of the 27% figure. PwD reservation runs horizontally across SC, ST, SEBC, EWS and General Merit rather than as one more vertical slice, and CEE applies every share through its category roster rather than as a simple headcount split. Seats left over once these shares are applied form the General Merit Quota. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26)
Documents Required for Kerala NEET PG Counselling
Keep these documents ready in the specified format before you start online application:
- NEET PG admit card and scorecard
- MBBS degree or provisional pass certificate, with all mark sheets
- Internship (CRRI) completion certificate
- Permanent or provisional NMC/State Medical Council registration
- Date of birth proof (SSLC, passport, or birth certificate)
- Nativity proof (birth record, passport, or Village Officer certificate)
- Community or non-creamy layer certificate, if claiming reservation
- KUHS eligibility or equivalency certificate, for MBBS completed outside Kerala
- Transfer certificate from the last institution attended
- Sponsor documents (visa, employment proof, notarised affidavit), for NRI quota
- Service details and probation order, for Service Quota candidates
- Passport-size photograph and signature scan in the prescribed size
Upload the certificates needed for your eligibility and reservation claims during the online application itself, as clear colour scans. CEE asks for the originals of these uploaded documents at the time of physical admission, and at any other point the admitting or allotment authority demands them.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Process: Choice Filling and Seat Allotment
Choice filling happens entirely online through your candidate home page. You select course-college combinations in your order of preference, save them, and log off properly to lock the session. CEE then processes these options against the rank and category list to generate the allotment.
If a seat gets allotted based on your options, you must accept it or lose that option and every option ranked below it. This rule applies at every phase, so registering an option you don’t intend to join creates real risk.
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Rounds
Kerala runs its CAP across three formal phases plus a stray vacancy round:
- Phase 1 — Fresh option registration opens to every candidate on the state rank and category list. A security deposit is due at this stage.
- Phase 2 — No fresh registration. Candidates confirm, delete or rearrange existing options only, and confirmation is mandatory to stay eligible for upgrades.
- Phase 3 — Fresh option registration reopens for all candidates. A separate registration fee applies, and category conversion for unfilled reserved seats happens here.
- Stray Vacancy Filling — After Phase 3, CEE publishes any remaining or newly-arisen vacancies and reopens fresh option registration through the candidate portal. Allotment here runs through CEE’s own online process, based on the applicable merit list and the options registered for this round, not through individual colleges.
Note the terminology gap here: several counselling guides label Phase 3 as a “mop-up round,” but CEE’s own prospectus never uses that phrase. Phase 3 is a formal, fresh-registration round, not a leftover clean-up step, and treating it that way underrates how many seats and category conversions actually move at this stage.
A candidate who accepts a seat in Phase 3 becomes ineligible for any further round, state or AIQ, so exercise those final options carefully.
Category Conversion Rules in Kerala NEET PG Counselling
If a reserved seat has no eligible candidate in Phase 3, CEE converts it following a fixed order set out in the prospectus:
| Original Category | Converts To |
|---|---|
| SC | ST |
| ST | SC |
| Categories under SEBC | State Merit |
| EWS | State Merit |
| General PwD | State Merit |
| SC PwD | SC |
| ST PwD | ST |
| Categories under SEBC PwD | SEBC |
| EWS PwD | EWS |
| Ex-Service Quota (XS) | State Merit |
| Dependent of Jawan Killed in Action | Dependent of Ex-Serviceman |
| Dependent of Ex-Serviceman | State Merit |
| NRI Minority | NRI Open |
| NRI Open | State Merit |
| Service Quota | State Merit |
| Muslim Minority (MM) | State Merit |
| Christian Minority (AC) | State Merit |
Unfilled SC seats move to ST first, and unfilled ST seats move to SC. If both remain unfilled, they move to OEC next, and only then to General Merit if no candidate remains. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26, Clause 10-2)
Kerala NEET PG Counselling Cutoff
Two different numbers get called “cutoff” in Kerala NEET PG Counselling, and confusing them leads to poor planning. The qualifying cutoff is the minimum NEET PG percentile needed just to enter the rank list, shown in the eligibility table above. The closing rank is the last rank at which a specific college, branch and category actually received a seat in a specific round.
Closing ranks shift every round as candidates upgrade, skip joining, or trigger category conversion. Comparing your rank against last year’s closing rank for your exact target branch and college gives a far more realistic picture than checking an overall state-level cutoff. Our guide on decoding closing ranks walks through this comparison method in detail.
State Quota vs Management and NRI Quota Seats
State Quota seats fill through the CEE rank list built on NEET PG merit and category. NRI Quota seats work differently: an applicant must depend on a father, mother, brother, sister (including first cousins), husband, wife, a sibling of either parent, a half-brother, half-sister, or adoptive parent working abroad, and must submit the sponsor’s passport and visa or OCI documents, employment proof, and a notarised affidavit confirming financial support for the full course.
Seat-related penalties in Kerala carry real financial weight. Once the Stray Vacancy Filling process has taken place, a candidate who vacates a seat joined in that round, or who vacates any previously joined seat after this stage, becomes liable for liquidated damages of ₹50,00,000 to CEE, along with a debarment of up to two years from future PG Medical admission if the amount goes unpaid. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26) Reviewing every allotment carefully before joining prevents this exposure entirely.
Bond and Service Obligation After Admission
General Merit and AIQ candidates admitted to Government Medical Colleges or RCC must execute a bond agreeing to serve the Kerala government as Senior Resident for a minimum of one year immediately after course completion. Service Quota candidates carry a longer 10-year bond, with at least 2 years in a difficult or rural posting. Breaking this bond triggers liquidated damages equal to the salary payable for the unserved period, plus recovery of stipend already paid. (Source: CEE Kerala Prospectus 2025-26)
How Career Plan B Helps
Career Plan B supports NEET PG aspirants navigating Kerala’s counselling maze through Personalised Career Counselling and PsycheIntel Career Assessment Tests that match your rank and category to realistic branch options.
Our Admission and Academic Profile Guidance helps you read prospectus clauses correctly, and our Career Roadmapping service plans your specialty path beyond just this one counselling cycle.
Get In Touch With Us
FAQs
Q1. How do I apply for Kerala NEET PG counselling?
Visit cee.kerala.gov.in, complete the five-step online registration, pay the application fee, upload documents, and print the acknowledgement page.
Q2. What is the Kerala NEET PG counselling registration date for 2026?
CEE has not announced the 2026 registration date yet. Check cee.kerala.gov.in regularly, since the portal will open once NEET PG 2026 results and eligibility lists are ready.
Q3. What documents does Kerala NEET PG counselling require?
Candidates need the NEET PG scorecard, MBBS degree, internship certificate, NMC registration, nativity proof and category certificate, all uploaded as clear scans.
Q4. Can a non-Kerala domicile candidate join Kerala NEET PG counselling?
Yes, if the candidate completed MBBS at a Kerala medical college. They compete for General Merit seats but must sign a one-year Senior Resident bond and cannot claim communal reservation.
Q5. How many rounds does Kerala NEET PG counselling seat allotment involve?
CEE conducts three formal phases plus a Stray Vacancy Round, with fresh option registration allowed in Phase 1, Phase 3 and the Stray Vacancy Round.
Q6. Where can I check the Kerala NEET PG counselling seat matrix?
The seat distribution appears on the official CEE Kerala PG Medical portal once notified for the year. Aggregator sites often reuse old figures, so verify against cee.kerala.gov.in directly.
Conclusion
Kerala NEET PG Counselling rewards candidates who read the prospectus instead of guessing from forum posts. Eligibility, fees, reservation shares and bond terms all sit in one official document, and CEE updates dates only through its own portal. Keep checking cee.kerala.gov.in as the 2026 cycle opens, and plan your options around verified data, not assumptions.
Curious how your rank stacks up once the 2026 seat matrix drops? Talk to Career Plan B for a rank-based counselling strategy built around your actual category and target branch.
