50 percent OBC reservation in AIQ medical seats: Madras HC reserves order
Chennai: The final verdict of the Madras High Court regarding 50 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in medical admission has been reserved to August 25.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D.Audikesavalu reserved their orders after the completion of arguments by the prosecution and the defence, adds UNI.
The issue concerned the DMK's contempt petition demanding 50 per cent OBC reservation in MBBS seats offered by State Government-run medical colleges in the All India Quota seats.
On July 27, 2020, the High Court had ruled that OB's were entitled to reservations in AIQ seats and that it should be implemented from the academic year 2021-22. Since the court orders were not complied with, the DMK moved the present contempt plea this year.
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The contempt plea by DMK had been filed over the delay in the process of implementation of OBC reservations for AIQ seats in medical admission for the academic year 2021-2022.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Madras High Court had directed the Central government to form a panel comprising state officers to formulate a method to implement OBC reservation in All India Quota medical seats in non-central institutions.
A division bench of Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy had observed that the decisions to be taken by the panel, with respect to the OBC reservation, would not apply to the present academic year but to the next academic year.
Such a committee, comprising representatives from the Centre, state, and erstwhile Medical Council of India should be constituted within three months, the court said while passing the order on a batch of petitions moved by the Tamil Nadu government, DMK, AIADMK, PMK, and other political parties, challenging the Centre's decision of not providing OBC quota in AIQ seats for medical admission.
Meanwhile, recently the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government announced the decision of providing 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10 percent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) scheme in MBBS, BDS, MD, MS, and MDS admissions.
"Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken a historic and a landmark decision for providing 27 percent reservation for OBCs and 10 percent reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme for undergraduate and postgraduate medical/dental courses (MBBS / MD / MS / Diploma / BDS / MDS) from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards," an official statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare mentioned on July 29.
As per the Union Government's decision, the overall reservation in 15 percent under-graduate and 50 percent post-graduate All India Quota seats for medical colleges in the State includes, 15% for Scheduled Castes, 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes, 27% for OBC, 10% for EWS, and 5% Horizontal Reservation as per NMC for PwD quota students.
However, during the last hearing of the case, DMK contended that the All India Quota seats should be governed by the same ratio of reservation as indicated in the 1993 Act. This was earlier affirmed by the Madras High Court as well.
As per the latest media report by The Hindu, senior counsel P. Wilson, who is representing DMK, insisted that as the seats belong to the State Government, the State reservation policy of 50% for OBCs, 18% for Scheduled Castes, and 1% for Scheduled Tribes must be implemented in AIQ. He also questioned the propriety of implementing EWS reservation even though there was no court order regarding the same.
On the other hand, Additional Solicitor General K.M Nataraj argued before the court that the EWS reservation had constitutional backing and the same was not necessary to be justified in the present case. He also contended that the question of contempt doesn't arise anymore since the Centre has given 27% OBC reservation already. In this context, he also pointed out that the total communal reservation couldn't cross the 50% upper limit and thus the decision taken by the centre in providing 27 per cent reservation to OBC, 15 per cent to SC and 7.5% to STs was correct and as per the Central policy.
Now, the High Court bench has reserved the order on August 25.
