SC upholds 20 percent In-service Reservation for PG Medical Admissions in Maharashtra

New Delhi: After Bombay High Court, now the Supreme Court of India has uphold the 20 percent In-service reservation for Postgraduate medical admission in Maharashtra.

Denying to interfere with the HC order, a bench of justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli on Thursday said it was difficult to accept the submission of the petitioners that the government resolution should not apply in the current academic year because of change in rules midway.

"We are of the considered view that the judgement of the Bombay High Court does not call for interference," the bench was quoted saying by PTI.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by some candidates against a judgment of the high court which refused to grant them relief. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Maha Government had announced a 20 per cent quota for in-service doctors practising in the rural and tribal areas of the State. As per the Government Order, the in-service doctors serving the state for two years shall be able to avail the reservation benefits while taking admission to PG medical courses.

Issuing a Government Resolution in this regard, the Maha Government clarified, "From the academic year 2022-23, government approval is being given to reserve 20% seats for in-service candidates for admissions to PG medical and diploma courses in government and civic-run medical colleges in the state."

However the GR has also made it clear that the in-service candidates would not be awarded any extra marks for their work, and admissions would be conducted solely on the basis of their NEET-PG marks.

Also Read: 20 percent inservice reservation gets HC nod in Maharashtra despite objection from PG medical aspirants

While this move ensured that the in-service doctors would get an edge in PG medical admissions, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Maharashtra had sought a stay on implementation of the in-service reservation for this academic year.

However, despite all the objections regarding the sudden implementation of In-service reservation, and the challenging the same before the High Court, the Bombay HC bench had decided that the newly introduced In-service reservation in PG Medical admissions in Maharashtra will be part of ongoing admissions.

Challenging the HC order, the doctors had approached the Supreme Court as well. As per the latest media report by Live Law, the counsel for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Anand Grover submitted that the government resolution in question had been issued after the commencement of the admission process. At this outset, he also relied upon a top court judgment which had clarified that the riles of game cannot be changed after the commencement of the process.

Besides, it had been further argued by the counsel that the State had not collected any data before implementing the resolution. In order to support his argument, he referred to the fact that out of 1416 PG seats, 286 were available for In-service quota while only 69 such candidates appeared for the PG medical entrance examination. Among them, only 52 had been granted admission. Referring to this data, the petitioners' counsel argued that the 20 percent reservation was disproportionate.

On the other hand, the counsel for Maharashtra Government, Advocate Abhay Dharmadhikari submitted that the rules did not change since the provisions of the brochure issued by the State specifically mentioned that In-service reservation would comply with such resolutions issued by the government from time to time.

The daily adds that the court mainly took note of the fact that the government resolution providing 20 percent In-service reservation had been issued on September 26. Therefore the main question was whether or not this resolution should be applied for the current academic year since the rules changed after commencement of the admission process.

In this context, the top court bench noted that up until 2017, Maharashtra had 30 percent In-service quota for degree courses. Further, the issue as to whether or not the States could provide In-service quota for PG medical courses had been settled by a constitutional bench of the Top Court.

Meanwhile, the intervenors in the matter informed the Bench that out of 1416 PG medical seats in the state of Maharashtra, 282 were reserved for in-service candidates. Among them, 268 obtained No-objection certificates from their departments and in the first round of counselling, 69 students were held to be eligible as they had received marks above the cut off. Consequently, 52 candiates had been admitted and on October 17, the Union Government issued a communication seeking reduction in cut off marks in NEET PG exam by 25 percentiles across all categories, noted the court.

In the view of the same, the bench noted, "The Court has been apprised of the fact that following the above decision, it is likely that additional candidates would become eligible to participate in the subsequent rounds of counselling."