Uttar Pradesh has put out ten instructions covering choice filling and the admission process for the first round, and two of them decide whether a candidate stays in the process at all. The Directorate General of Medical Education and Training issued the notice on 3 September 2026.
The first gate is money and paperwork together. Only candidates whose security deposit has been paid and whose documents have been verified are eligible to fill choices. Qualifying NEET UG 2026 makes you eligible for the counselling, but it does not by itself open the choice filling window.
Locking is the whole game
The second gate is the lock. Locking your choices after filling them is mandatory, and a candidate who does not lock is automatically excluded from the allotment process. Filling a careful preference list and leaving it unlocked produces the same outcome as filling nothing.
Once locked, the list is final. The directorate states that no modification or change of locked choices will be permitted under any circumstances, and that it will not consider any application made in that regard. There is no appeal route here, so the list you lock is the list you are allotted against.
The instruction on how to build that list is short and sensible: fill choices in order of your own priority, and enter only those colleges where you actually want admission. A preference you would refuse is a preference you should not enter, because an allotment against it is a real allotment with real consequences.
Where you report depends on who runs the college
The admission process splits by sector. Candidates allotted a government medical or dental college complete their admission at the allotted college. Candidates allotted a private medical or dental college complete it at a nodal centre nominated by the government, not at the college. The list of nodal centres is in the UP NEET UG 2026 brochure.
This trips up candidates every year. Turning up at a private college with your documents on the reporting day is not reporting, and the nodal centre is the only place the admission can be completed.
Private college fees go by demand draft, or the admission lapses
Candidates allotted a private sector seat have to deposit the tuition fee fixed by the government or by the minority institution as a CTS bank draft, drawn in favour of “Director General, Medical Education and Training, U.P.” and payable at Lucknow. The draft is submitted at the designated nodal centre at the time of admission.
The consequence of getting this wrong is spelt out: without it, the admission is treated as automatically cancelled. A draft made payable at the wrong city, or drawn in favour of the college rather than the directorate, is the kind of error that cannot be fixed at the counter.
The directorate also tells candidates to check the fee orders themselves. Letters and government orders on the tuition fee fixed for private minority and non-minority medical and dental colleges are on the departmental websites, and the amount on your draft has to match the order that applies to your college.
What to do now
- Confirm your security deposit is paid and your documents are verified. Without both, the choice window is closed to you.
- Fill choices strictly in your own order of preference, and leave out colleges you would not join.
- Lock the list. Then check that it shows as locked.
- If you expect a private college seat, look up the applicable tuition fee order and get the CTS draft made in favour of the Director General, Medical Education and Training, U.P., payable at Lucknow.
- Find your nodal centre in the brochure before reporting day rather than on it.
The government order behind this season is number I/1448377/2026 dated 1 September 2026, and it sits with the brochure on the departmental websites.
Our Uttar Pradesh counselling guide follows the rounds, we track UP closing ranks by college and category, and you can test a rank on our college predictor before you order your list. The Round 1 registration story has the schedule, the counselling rules story covers the deposits and what exits cost, and the private college fee list has the tuition figures fixed for 2026-27.
Official links
- Important information and instructions for Round 1 choice filling and the admission process, UP NEET UG 2026 (PDF)
- UP NEET UG counselling portal
- Directorate General of Medical Education and Training, Uttar Pradesh
Source: Office of the Director General, Medical Education and Training, Uttar Pradesh, notice number ME-3/UG-2026/1610 dated 3 September 2026, important information and instructions for first round choice filling and the admission process under UP NEET UG 2026.