INI-CET January 2027: Registration Closes 13 October

Registration for INI-CET January 2027 closes at 5:00 pm on 13 October 2026. The exam is on 1 November 2026. Twenty-three Institutes of National Importance admit to MD, MS, MDS, DM and MCh seats through it, and these seats sit outside NEET PG counselling.

INI-CET January 2027 at a glance

The notice is Admission Notice No. 148/2026 dated 2 September 2026, file number F.No.AIIMS/EXAM.SEC./4-5/(INI-CET-PG-Jan-2027)/2026. The full document sits on the AIIMS prospectus page for the INI-CET January 2027 session.

INI-CET January 2027 dates: what is left

The prospectus calls the result date an expected date, so treat 7 November as a target rather than a promise. Seat allocation dates, including the Open Round, are not in the prospectus. It says only that they "will be notified separately".

There is no separate last date for paying the fee. The fee is paid inside the application, and the advertisement is blunt about what happens if it is not: "All applicant for which fees not paid will be summarily rejected."

Who is eligible for INI-CET January 2027?

Two conditions decide it, and the second one catches people out.

1. The degree. The prospectus requires "MBBS degree for MD, MS, DM-6yrs, MCh-6yrs, MD (Hospital Administration) Courses, and BDS degree for MDS courses of a University recognized by the National Medical Commission/Medical Council of India".

2. The internship cut-off. You must have completed twelve months of compulsory rotating internship "on or before 31st January, 2027 for all INIs".

3. Council registration. You need provisional or permanent registration with NMC, DCI or a state council at the time of applying. On selection you then register with the council of the state your INI sits in.

Who cannot apply

The prospectus is explicit on the internship point: "Candidates who will complete their internship after 31st January, 2027 are not eligible for Registration in this examination." There is no relaxation and no provisional route.

Candidates with no provisional or permanent council registration are also out: "Those who have not registered with the National Medical Commission/Dental Council of India / any state Medical/Dental council are not eligible for apply INI-CET PG Examination."

If your internship finishes in February 2027 or later, the July 2027 session is your entry point, not this one.

What does INI-CET January 2027 cost?

Payment is by debit card, credit card or net banking. Any transaction charge is payable to the bank by the applicant, on top of the fee above.

On refunds the prospectus leaves no room: "Application fees once remitted shall not be refunded under any circumstances." The one exception is a double payment against a single form, which is refunded after the examination process is complete.

Which institutes take part in INI-CET January 2027?

Twenty-three institutes, listed in Table 1 of the prospectus.

• Nineteen AIIMS: New Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Nagpur, Patna, Raipur, Rishikesh, Bibinagar, Bhatinda, Deoghar, Mangalagiri, Raebareli, Kalyani, Bilaspur, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Rajkot and Jammu.

• PGIMER Chandigarh, which offers the second largest number of seats after AIIMS New Delhi.

• JIPMER Puducherry, third largest on the open-seat matrix.

• NIMHANS Bengaluru, the national institute for mental health and neurosciences.

• SCTIMST Trivandrum, which specialises in medical sciences and technology.

Each institute publishes its own Part B of the prospectus, carrying its reservation rules, institutional preference and course list. There are five Part B files, one each for AIIMS, JIPMER, NIMHANS, PGIMER and SCTIMST.

How many seats are on offer?

AIIMS publishes a per-institute matrix rather than a single national total, and labels it "Tentative Seat Position (Open Seats)". The prospectus adds that the list is "subjected to change", because it is built from information each INI sends in.

The largest open-seat counts on the INI-CET January 2027 seat position page are AIIMS New Delhi 192, PGIMER Chandigarh 143, JIPMER Puducherry 119, AIIMS Kalyani 114 and AIIMS Nagpur 97. At the other end, AIIMS Jammu lists 10, SCTIMST 5 and NIMHANS 2.

Two horizontal reservations apply across the matrix. The footnote reads: "Five percent seat of PwBD category and five percent seats of Rural Area Service (RAS) category shall be allotted on horizontal basis as per AIIMS pattern." The NMC disability rules for medical admission set out how the PwBD side works.

What is the INI-CET exam pattern?

It is a computer-based test of 200 questions in 180 minutes. Each correct answer earns one mark. Each wrong answer costs one-third of a mark. An unanswered question costs nothing.

The structure is unusual, and it is the part worth rehearsing before exam day. The paper is split into four parts of 50 questions, each with its own 45-minute clock. The prospectus explains what happens when a clock runs out: "Access to visible active part to view/answer will be disabled once the allotted time of 45 minute expires and next part will be automatically activated."

So you cannot bank time from an easy section and spend it on a hard one. Each part is submitted automatically after its 45 minutes, and the parts are served in random order. Question types include single correct choice and multiple correct choice.

Qualifying percentiles are the 50th for unreserved, EWS and Sponsored Foreign National candidates, and the 45th for OBC, SC, ST, PwBD and Bhutanese National candidates at PGIMER Chandigarh.

How is the INI-CET counselling run?

AIIMS runs it, online, for the INI seats only. The prospectus says: "The seat allocation for the available postgraduate seats in participating INIs shall be done through online mode only. The seat allocation shall be conducted for at least Two (2) Rounds followed by Open Round."

Allocation runs on merit, your choices, and each institute's own reservation and institutional preference rules, through what the prospectus calls "Institute-wise Synchronization of Seat Allocation". Institute-specific policy sits in Part B, so read the Part B of the institute you actually want.

These seats are separate from the national postgraduate counselling. Our guide to INI-CET compared with NEET PG sets out the difference, and our NEET PG counselling guide covers the other route. Most serious candidates sit both.

What to do in the next eight days

1. Check your internship completion date first. If it falls after 31 January 2027, stop here. You are not eligible for this session.

2. Get your council registration number to hand. Provisional or permanent, from NMC, DCI or a state council. You cannot register without it.

3. Register and pay before 5:00 pm on 13 October. Not on the day itself. The portal carries a national load in its final hours.

4. Upload category certificates in the same window. PwBD, SC, ST, OBC-NCL, EWS and OCI certificates all close at the same 13 October deadline, not later.

5. Use the correction window, 17 to 19 October. Check the spelling of your name, your category and your photograph against your documents.

6. Download the admit card on 26 October and read the centre details the same day, so a travel problem becomes a three-day problem rather than a one-day one.

What if you miss the 13 October deadline?

There is no late window and no extension mechanism in the prospectus. The next session is INI-CET July 2027, which would start your PG course six months later.

Missing INI-CET does not cost you the year. NEET PG is the separate national route into MD, MS and PG Diploma seats everywhere outside these 23 institutes, and it covers far more seats. Our piece on PG seats in India sets out the size of each pool, and the NEET PG counselling web story walks the steps visually.

If you are still deciding which speciality to chase before you fill choices, our guide to which course is best after MBBS compares MD, MS and DNB.

Sources

• AIIMS, INI-CET January 2027 Prospectus Part A and Part B

• AIIMS, INI-CET January 2027 advertisement, Admission Notice No. 148/2026

• AIIMS, INI-CET January 2027 tentative seat position