The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Directorate General of Health Services to furnish details relating to the total number of vacant seats in post-graduate medical courses in private and government colleges and deemed universities.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi also asked the DGHS to come out with suggestions for filling up these seats, which according to some deemed universities could be around 1,000. In the deemed varsities alone, there are an estimated 350 vacancies.

The court passed the directions while dealing with a petition filed by a consortium of deemed universities that has sought extension of the time for admission till June 30.

The court will hear the matter again on June 17.

According to senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for the universities, the 350-odd vacant medical seats could not be filled up within the earlier deadline of May 31.

He assured the court that the seats would be filled up without causing any prejudice to the students who have already secured admission.