Petitions filed by the Maharashtra government lack any mention of figures, hearing on May 5
Maharashtra government on Tuesday filed a special leave petition in the Supreme court seeking a relief against a Bombay High Court dated April 30 which has stayed sudden introduction of 67.5 per cent domicile quota in private and deemed medical colleges by the government three days ahead of publication of the first merit list of admissions.
"The matter has been listed for hearing on May 5," Nishant Katneshwarkar, Maharashtra government counsel told DNA.
Interestingly, the Bombay High Court has stayed the government order issued on April 27 on the ground that the rules can't be changed when the game is on. The first merit-based selection list released by the state on Sunday morning was scrapped by the afternoon following the HC order, adding to the admission chaos.
Over 6,500 medical aspirants have applied for postgraduate admissions in Maharashtra this year, of which nearly 2,000 are from other states. There are 3,300-odd seats up for grab.
Even as the Fadnavis government had claimed earlier that many states had introduced domicile quota for medical students to justify its move of reserving 67.5 per cent postgraduate medical, dental seats for local students in Maharashtra's private and deemed medical colleges, it has no statistics regarding the percentage of quota in those states.
When asked for the quota in other states, the officials of Medical education department and Directorate of Medical Education and Research claimed that the entire file with all the crucial documents has been sent to the public prosecutor in Delhi as he will present the case in SC.
When asked about the same, SC Advocate Katneshwarkar said, "The figures of other states are not available in the case file." This suggests that not only the decision was taken in haste but there was also poor preparedness from the government's side.
"Had the government been serious on the issue, they could have brought the change before applications were invited," said an official from private medical college.
DNA has learnt that the decision was taken following representation of some local students with the government in mid April.
When asked about the reasons of waking up so late despite knowing that the move could be challenged in the court, Dr Pravin Shingare, head of the DMER, claimed,"Some local candidates had made a representation to the government that they would be at loss as other states have implemented domicile quota. Hence, Maharashtra must also implement the quota to give adequate seats to local students. We thought they had a point. Now, we have pinned our hopes at the SC judgement."
Quota effect
The 67.5 per cent quota is aimed at having more local students in postgraduate medical courses
The government claims it is needed to improve the public healthcare system in the state
Candidates of other states say they have become ineligible after sudden change in the rules which is injustice to them
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