A Telangana student from the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category scored just 1 mark out of 800 in the NEET PG exam but secured admission for MS Orthopaedics at a private medical college in Hyderabad. This emerged during the mop-up phase of postgraduate medical admissions for 2025–26 under the competent authority quota by Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) on February 9. The candidate held an all-India rank of 2,29,981. Similar cases followed. An SC2 candidate with 12 marks got MD Forensic Medicine at Osmania Medical College, while another SC3 candidate with 24 marks was admitted to MD Pathology there. An ST candidate with 32 marks joined MD Pathology at Kakatiya Medical College, and another ST student with 59 marks secured MD Radiodiagnosis at Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad. These three government colleges are among Telangana's top medical institutions. Over 20 students scoring between 1 and 100 marks got seats in government and private colleges across the state. The shift followed NBEMS's January 13 decision to lower qualifying cut-offs sharply. For General and EWS categories, the cut-off dropped from 276 to 103 marks (7th percentile). For General Persons with Benchmark Disabilities, it fell from 255 to 90 marks (5th percentile). For SC, ST, OBC, and their disabled candidates, the qualifying percentile dropped to 0, with a cut-off as low as minus 40 from 235 earlier. Doctors' groups criticized the falling standards. Dr. Srinath, president of Telangana Senior Resident Doctors Association, said, "seats should not remain vacant, but this cannot justify lowering academic standards." He urged twice-a-year NEET-PG exams to fill seats properly, like AIIMS does. He stressed NEET-PG tests essential skills across 17 MBBS subjects and warned that low cut-offs harm quality. Dr. Narahari of Telangana Government Doctors Association recalled historical irregularities in medical admissions and warned against eroding merit. The controversy raises fresh questions about admission policies and the future of medical education quality in Telangana and India.