Maharashtra NEET UG Special Stray Registration Closes Today for 138 Vacant Seats

Candidates seeking a remaining MBBS or BDS seat through Maharashtra's NEET UG 2026 counselling process face a same-day deadline on Monday, November 2. The State Common Entrance Test Cell has set 5:30 p.m. for fresh online registration in the special stray vacancy round, which concerns 138 vacant State Quota seats. Payment and document-upload windows close later the same evening, creating three distinct times that applicants should not confuse. The notice was reported by The Times of India on Monday morning and follows the state cell's special-round announcement.

This is not a general invitation for every NEET candidate to register again. The state has defined eligibility conditions for the special round, including restrictions for applicants who have already participated in or been allotted seats through later counselling stages. Candidates need to verify that they qualify before assuming a new registration is permitted.

Three deadlines on the same day

According to the published schedule, fresh online registration and session application run through 5:30 p.m. IST on November 2. The registration-fee payment window extends to 7:30 p.m., and uploading coloured scanned copies of required original documents is permitted until 8 p.m. Online document verification is scheduled to continue through November 3.

Those times are not interchangeable. A candidate who has not completed the initial registration by 5:30 p.m. should not assume the later payment or upload window gives them additional time to begin the application. The CET Cell's instructions also say registration is treated as complete only after successful payment, so applicants should not regard an unsubmitted or unpaid form as a confirmed entry.

What the 138 vacancies represent

A course-wise vacancy summary dated October 27 listed 84 vacant MBBS seats and 54 vacant BDS seats across 99 colleges. The MBBS vacancies were concentrated in private institutions: 39 in private colleges and 45 in private universities, with none listed in the government, corporation and central MBBS category in that snapshot. The BDS vacancies comprised two government or corporation seats, 22 private-college seats and 30 private-university seats.

These are published vacancies at a specific point in the counselling process, not a guarantee that all seats will remain available to every eligible applicant. Allotment depends on applicable merit, preferences, eligibility and the counselling rules. The vacancy count also should not be confused with the much larger nationwide seat figures sometimes reported for the separate Medical Counselling Committee process.

Eligibility restrictions are significant

The notice says candidates who registered previously cannot simply make a second fresh registration. It provides a limited exception for some candidates who were allotted MBBS or BDS seats in Round 2 but did not join, did not report or cancelled those seats, provided they did not register during CAP-3. Applicants allotted seats in CAP-3 or subsequent stray vacancy rounds are not eligible for this fresh registration route.

The registration window concerns Group A MBBS and BDS courses, not the other groups handled by the state cell. These distinctions can determine whether an application is accepted, even when a candidate's NEET score otherwise appears competitive. Candidates should consult the full official notice rather than rely on a simplified social-media checklist.

Documents and verification matter after the form

The CET Cell requires coloured scanned copies of the relevant original documents. Failure to upload documents can affect whether a candidate is considered under a claimed category. Verification continues into November 3, so the end of registration is not necessarily the end of the administrative process. Applicants should retain payment receipts and submission acknowledgements and check for any official correction or verification instructions.

The cell's notice is available through the Maharashtra admissions portal. Because admission schedules can change after government, counselling authority or court directions, candidates should confirm the latest version before making a final submission. An unofficial link promising a seat for an additional fee is not part of the authorised counselling process.

State counselling and national counselling are separate

The Maharashtra special stray round should not be merged with the national Medical Counselling Committee's own special stray vacancy schedule. Both concern medical admissions, but their seat pools, registration rules and portals are not identical. A candidate interested in both must review the relevant rules separately and should not assume that completing one form satisfies the other process.

The immediate reader interest is unusually concrete: 138 listed vacancies and a 5:30 p.m. registration cutoff on November 2, followed by payment and document deadlines. Once those windows close, the next legitimate updates will concern verification, seat allotment and any official changes to the schedule—not generic instructions detached from the current admission round.

Sources reviewed: timesofindia.indiatimes.com, cetcell.mahacet.org. Reporting reflects information available on the morning of 2 November 2026 (IST).