Supreme Court issues notices to the Centre on medical quota

The all-India quota comprises 15% of the total available undergraduate seats and 50 per cent of postgraduate seats in government medical colleges

Supreme Court of India : File picture

Legal Correspondent   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |   07.09.21 : The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) on a plea by a group of doctors to quash the July 29 notification allowing reservation for OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and EWS (Economically Weaker Section) in the all-India quota for medical seats from 2021-22 academic year.

The all-India quota comprises 15 per cent of the total available undergraduate seats and 50 per cent of postgraduate seats in government medical colleges.

In the petition, the group of doctors has alleged that the policy is unconstitutional and contrary to some of the assurances given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the pandemic.

NEET PG Exams are scheduled to be held from September 11 and the MCC has announced that 1,75,063 students will appear for the tests.

This is the first time such reservation benefits are being extended to the OBCs and EWS categories in higher medical education.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and Hima Kohli sought the Centre’s and MCC’s response to the petition within two weeks which argued that the notification was arbitrary, unconstitutional and illegal as the rules cannot be changed once the examination process has been initiated.

Senior advocates Vikas Sing and Arvind Datar appeared for the doctors.

The petitioners have moved the court against the MCC’s July 29 order providing for the said quota although the NEET PG exam process had commenced in April.

However, the exam had to be postponed to September because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.