Maharashtra: HC dismisses pea opposing scrapping of regional reservation in MBBS admission
Maharashtra: Upholding the state government's decision on the regional reservation system, the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court has confirmed that amended rule 2020 implemented by the state government which denied giving regional reservation for admission to MBBS and other UG medical courses is in fact valid and justified. The court observed that giving regional reservation is a direct contradiction to the objective of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) which reasserts the concept of one nation one examination and provides admission to medical aspirants strictly on the basis of merit.
This came after 8 medical aspirants approached the High Court against the state government's decision to do away with the original reservation system in the medical education sector. The petitioners alleged that the government's decision of not allowing the regional reservation is not valid as the decision was announced after the admission process already started, hence the order should be set aside.
The Medical Dialogue team had earlier reported that the Maharashtra Government scrapped the 70:30 region-wise formula for admission in MBBS courses. The Medical Education Minister Amit Deshmukh had stated that admission would now be based on results of students who have appeared for NEET, the minister confirmed that instead of 70:30 quota it would be one Maharashtra, one merit concept. The previous formula implied reservation for 70% locals in medical college and 30% for the rest of the state. The rest of the seats were open to other applicants from the state. The new system will allow them to get admission to the college of their choice and this clearly means that only NEET result will be considered for MBBS admission from this year.
However opposing the decision, the petitioners submitted in the court that the admission brochure did not mention scrapping of 70:30 reservation hence amending the rule suddenly is not be justified especially considering the interest of the aspiring students. As per a recent media report, the petitioners also submitted that the decision of amendment did not follow a clear legislative process. The petitioners stated that when many other such revisions are still in force amending the rule to simply discontinue the 70:30 reservation was sudden contraposition by the state. The petitioners were of the view that the rules were introduced 10 months after an admission process had already begun and therefore, it cannot be applied retrospectively and the admission process for the academic year 2020-21 should not be impacted by the amendment.
The senior advocate and special counsel for the state Anil Anturkar contended that the amendment was introduced before the year's NEET exams and NEET is the only standard accepted by all the authorities considering the admission of medical aspirants in medical and dental courses. As far as the state's support of the regional reservation system in 2016 is concerned, the counsel for the state added that the decision of 2016 and 2020 is based on the several circumstances of the respective year, hence, both cannot be compared. Intervenors in the petition concurred with the state's submissions and said that the 70:30 rule was not beneficial to the backward students from the Marathwada and Vidarbha region.
After hearing the submissions, the bench observed, "The contention of the petitioners that Amendment Rules-2020 are made operative retrospectively do not appear to be proper. Before the conduct of the NEET examination, the rules are amended."
As per a recent media report by Hindustan Times the cour noted, "The Amendment Rules-2020 do not appear to be against constitutional mandate nor [do they] override the stipulation under any statute. The purpose of Amendment Rules-2020 was to end regional merit and the state merit is given priority. The person getting better marks would get precedence in admission to the medical courses. Such consideration does not appear to be deficient of an intelligible object,"
The Indian Express adds that the court finally ordered, "The basis of admission to the medical course is the merit alone achieved by the students in NEET examination. No student can claim the right to possess regional reservation. The marks obtained in the HSC examination carry no weightage for medical admission. In light of the above, the arguments of the petitioners that the amendment Rules-2020 applied retrospectively would not hold water."
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