Increase MBBS Seats in Private Medical Colleges to Provide EWS Reservation: MP HC order

Bhopal: Noting that there is no provision for EWS seats in the private medical colleges, a Division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday asked the State Government to increase the seats in the private medical colleges to provide reservation to the candidates belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category.

Further, the Division bench of the HC comprising Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain also took cognisance of the fact that there is no provision for EWS seats in the private medical colleges under the rules framed in the State. The bench opined that this violated the 103rd amendment providing a separate quota for EWS candidates.

Accordingly, the State was granted a year's time by the HC bench to complete the formalities regarding the infrastructure and other things before the seats were hiked, TOI has reported.

These observations were made by the Court while considering the plea by a Jabalpur-based student Atharva Chaturvedi. After appearing in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) as an EWS candidate, he secured 530 of 720 percentile marks.

Also Read: Medical Colleges CANNOT take EWS Admissions Beyond Permitted Seats: National Medical Commission Warning

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, allegedly, even though NRI candidates with lesser marks and government school quota general category students with lesser marks secured admission in the private medical colleges, the petitioner student was denied admission.

Therefore, the petitioner challenged the State Government's notification which specified the rules for admission to medical colleges. He argued that in the private medical colleges, EWS seats were not reserved even though the same reservation is available in the government medical colleges.

Further, the petitioner contended that even though the Central Government issued a notification in this regard in 2019 itself, it was not followed by the Madhya Pradesh Government. As a result, EWS candidates were deprived of getting a seat in a private medical college.

On the other hand, the State Government submitted that the candidates were well aware of the rules at the time of appearing in the NEET exam. Further, the State argued that since the admission process for this academic session was already complete, rules could not be changed for admissions at this point of time.

Apart from this, the State also highlighted that the National Medical Commission had not given any directions to increase the seats in private medical colleges and therefore, EWS quota seats were not kept in private medical colleges.

While appreciating the arguments of the 19-year-old boy, the Court allowed the plea with a direction to the State Government to increase the seats in the private medical colleges for the EWS candidates.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year NMC had warned medical colleges not to admit MBBS students under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota beyond the permitted seats. 

Issuing a notice in this regard on 20.10.2023, NMC had highlighted the practice adopted by medical institutes admitting additional students for the MBBS course under the Economical Weaker Section quota over and above the sanctioned seat.

Back then the Commission had warned that all institutes were "required to admit the sanctioned number of students including EWS category within the permitted seat quota," further adding that "no additional seat shall be permitted by the National Medical Commission".

Also Read: HC puts hold on MBBS seat cancellations in NRI quota forgery case