Doctors Challenge EWS quota in PG Medical Admission, HC imposes fine of Rs 50,000

The division bench comprising Justice R K Jain and Justice Jaswant Singh of the HC has passed these orders while hearing a petition filed by aspirants seeking PG medical admissions in the state. They had challenged the notification dated April 15, 2020, issued with respect to the procedure for admission to MD/MS courses wherein the reservation quota for EWS, BCA, BCB and SC categories went to the extent of 87%.

In the previous hearing on this particular matter, the counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner medicos had argued that the reservation for the state quota for admission to PG medical courses in various medical colleges is in violation of the law laid down by the Supreme Court with regard to the reservation. The petitioners had also argued that reservation is not mandatory for postgraduate courses as they are speciality courses, adding no such reservation except institutional preference and for physically disabled was provided by the State in academic session 2019-20.

It was contended before the bench that the reservation, in any case, could not go beyond 50% and in this view of the matter, the notification issued by Haryana government could not withstand the scrutiny of law.

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In response, the counsel for Haryana government had argued that 25% seats for institutional preference and 5% seats for the physically handicapped as well as 10% for the EWS category shall fall in the horizontal reservation and thereby the vertical reservation shall not exceed the cap of 50%, according to an earlier report by TOI.

After perusing the matter, the bench had accepted the plea of the petitioners and had stayed the counselling while directing the concerned state medical education authorities to submit their replies on the matter.

Now, approaching the court with a review petition, the petitioners once again pointed to the April 2020 notification pleading that the reservation implemented via this notification issued by the state of Haryana, being implemented after the process of admissions had started in November 2019 and, therefore, not permissible. Their argument was that this issue was not addressed by the HC in their previous petition.

Contending against the plea, the counsel appearing on behalf of the state argued that at the time of issuance of the notification the reservations, already notified vide notification dated January 29, 2020, issued by the state of Haryana, had come into being and, therefore, enforced in the seat distribution. It was then submitted that the plea of the said reservation not being applicable to the state quota is misplaced as the admission process for the state quota seats had only commenced on the issuance of the notification dated April 15, 2020, whereas the previous process was only for the determination of merit by the national board of examinations by conducting the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for PG medical admissions, NEET PG 2020.

Further submitting that the EWS seats are over and above the initial allocation of seats in the state quota, the state contended that filling or non-filling of the EWS seats do not in any manner prejudice the claims of the general category candidates like the eight petitioners.

According to a recent TOI report, after hearing submissions and contentions from both the sides, the division bench comprising Honourable Justices Rakesh Kumar Jain and Jaswant Singh found that there was no merit in the contention of the petitioners. Accordingly, the court dismissed the review petition seeking directions not to implement the EWS reservation from this PG medical admission session. Further, cost of Rs 50,000 was imposed on the petitioners.

"We do not find any merit in the present review petition, which is hereby dismissed with costs of Rs 50,000, which shall be deposited by the applicant-petitioners with the registry of this court within a period of 30 days, failing which the registrar general shall proceed to recover the same in accordance with law,"