MBBS reservation for Public school students in Puducherry: Madras HC seeks response from centre, state

Previously medical dialogues team reported that the Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy said that the UT has decided to introduce a 10% internal reservation in MBBS courses for students of Government schools who have cleared the NEET this year. A cabinet meeting was held and the file relating to this was sent to LT governor Kiran Bedi for approval but the process of implementing a 10% horizontal reservation for government school students in the medical education sector got delayed as she did not approve the proposal and referred the file to union home ministry to take a decision. She added that since this is a policy-making decision, it should be forwarded to Delhi for consideration of the concerned authorities.

Considering the current confusion regarding the implementation of the reservation, the petitioner approached the court and submitted that her daughter had secured 72% marks in her Class 12 exams and a 47.95 percentile in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). She also added that in comparison to private college students, only a small number of Government school students get admitted to medical colleges. Hence the center should respond to the recommendation as soon as possible.

The New Indian Express reports that the petitioner requested the court to issue directions for a quick decision to be made. She also pointed out that the Tamil Nadu government has already started providing 7.5% reservation in medical seats to students from Government schools and the decision regarding the same issue in Pondicherry should be promptly made as well. She requested the court to restrict the Puducherry government from conducting any counseling for the medical admission this year until the disposal of the petition considering the best interest of the medical aspirants of this year.

After considering the submission of the petitioner, Justice Anand Venkatesh sought a response from the counsel of the petitioner about the current status of the representation made by the Puducherry government to the central government. As per the daily, replying to the query, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that it will take more time to organize a detailed report regarding the same. Recording the submissions, the court also ordered that notices should be issued to the central government as well as the Puducherry government seeking their response along with a detailed report by December 21st.