Supreme Court directs Goa Govt to allot MBBS seat to sailor under sports quota

Panaji: In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court has directed the Goa Government to grant one MBBS seat under the sports quota to an internationally recognised sailor, Pearl Colvalcar, who qualified NEET UG.

Colvalcar approached the Apex Court after the Bombay High Court, through its order dated August 25, quashed the Goa Government's notification converting the Children of Freedom fighters into sports quota for admissions to medicine and dentistry and disposed of Colvalcar's plea for a medical seat.

While considering the plea challenging the HC order, the Supreme Court bench ordered, "We are not inclined to interfere with the order passed by the high court. However, in the facts and circumstances of the case and to do complete justice, we direct that one seat in terms of advertisement dated Aug 1, 2025, under sports quota be adjusted from out of one seat that would have remained unfilled."

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Bombay High Court at Goa recently quashed the Goa Government's decision to introduce a sports quota in MBBS and BDS admissions after the commencement of the admission process.

Also Read: Sports Quota for MBBS Admissions Withdrawn or Lapsed? Telangana HC Asks State

While considering a plea filed by a National Eligibility-Entrance Test (NEET) candidate, a Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justices Bharati H. Dangre and Nivedita P. Mehta had termed such a policy introduced after commencement of the admission process as impermissible and contrary to the binding rules in the prospectus.

Challenging the High Court's order, Colvalcar had approached the Supreme Court, which has now granted her relief by directing the Goa Government to grant one medical seat to her under the sports quota.

However, the bench clarified that "This direction is in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case and shall not be treated as a precedent."

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, Colvalcar told the Supreme Court that she represented Goa and India in various national and international competitions in sailing. She said that she was a recipient of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar. She further submitted that she had a NEET score of 340 out of 720 and she was seeking admission to the MBBS course under the sports quota.

Back in August, while quashing the Goa Government's notification, which was issued at the "eleventh hour" after the commencement of the admission process, the HC bench had held that the notification by the Directorate of Technical Education issued on August 1, calling for applications from meritorious sportspersons to fill vacant seats under the children of freedom fighters category midway into the admission process, was "arbitrary".

"By no stretch of imagination, do we doubt the permissibility of the State to provide such reservation and even by executive fiat but we are surprised by the method that is adopted by the State Government that despite the declaring the Sports Policy in the year 2009, all these years the State Government did not try to implement the same by providing reservation in the MBBS/BDS courses for so long and all of a sudden, a halfhearted exercise is being taken as we see that instead of providing a quota for three percent, out of the three seats that become available on non-filling of the seats from FFs category, two of them have decided to be filled in by the persons belonging to Sports category. This according to us, amounts to changing the Rule of the Game which we do not permit as we note that the issue is not whether the Petitioner become eligible for the post or not but we are determining the issue from a larger point as to whether the midway change in the method of filling the seats can be accepted and permitted," the HC bench had observed the bench while quashing the sports quota reservation.

Also Read: Bombay HC Quashes Sports Quota for MBBS, BDS Admissions in Goa