Supreme Court rejects petitions to modify its order on PG medical admissions in Maharashtra

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain applications seeking modification of its June 4 directions related to admissions to post graduate medical and dental courses in the 2019-20 academic year in the state.

The Court stated that the order is clear and there appears no ambiguity that requires clarification.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi said the seats available after the apex court’s order staying the notification to grant 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker sections (EWS), should be filled strictly according to merit. 

“There can be no question of exclusion of any meritorious candidate irrespective of the category provided; the candidates get cut-off marks as required for the general category.” 

Advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, who appeared for the state government, and the counsel representing the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell told the bench that they were following the law laid down by the top court in the admission process for PG medical and dental courses.

One application contended that the court’s order may come in the way of the Bombay High Court hearing a plea challenging the ordinance passed by the Maharashtra government, which attempts to reinstate Socially and Economically Backward Classes quota, referred to as Maratha quota.

The second application sought modification of the June 4 order and allow students to change their options, in the view of fresh counselling. The Court refused to entertain it.

The third application was filed by a student from the OBC category which alleged that seats that fell vacant after the scrapping of the EWS quota have been included in the general category pool, but students belonging to other categories, despite having merit, were being excluded.

The application on the direction related to any further challenge had said the Bombay High Court is presently seized of a matter related to challenge to an Ordinance promulgated by Maharashtra in May on reservation of seats for admission in educational institution in the state for socially and educationally backward classes.

It had said that the petitioner had first approached the apex court against the Ordinance but they were asked by the court to move the high court. The application had said the apex court should clarify that its June 4 order would not come in the way of high court deciding the plea challenging the validity of the Ordinance.

The other application had sought modification of the June 4 direction saying the qualified students should be permitted to exercise change of his or her preference for allotment of seats in the PG medical and dental courses for 2019-2020 academic year.

The top court had on June 4 directed the Maharashtra government to conduct final round of counselling by June 14 for admissions to PG medical and dental courses in the 2019-20 academic year.

The Petitions

• One application contended that the court’s order may come in the way of the Bombay High Court hearing a plea challenging the ordinance passed by the Maharashtra government, which attempts to reinstate Socially and Economically Backward Classes quota, referred to as Maratha quota.
• The second application sought modification of the June 4 order and allow students to change their options, in the view of fresh counselling. The Court refused to entertain it.
• The third application was filed by a student from the OBC category which alleged that seats that fell vacant after the scrapping of the EWS quota have been included in the general category pool, but students belonging to other categories, despite having merit, were being excluded.

Court’s Order

• “There can be no question of exclusion of any meritorious candidate irrespective of the category provided; the candidates get cut-off marks as required for the general category.”

Govt’s Stand

• Advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, appearing for the Maharashtra government, and the counsel representing the state’s Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell told the bench that they were following the law laid down by the top court in the admission process for PG medical and dental courses.

Quota row

• The Central Government has introduced 10% reservation quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) among General Category candidates in government jobs and educational institutions
• June 4 SC order
• Hearing a petition against 10 per cent reservation for EWS category, in its order dated June 4, the SC scrapped EWS reservation for this academic year, reverted the reserved seats to open category, and directed government to “conduct fresh counselling for PG medical seats in the state of Maharashtra for the academic year 2019-2020 by issuing fresh advertisements”
• The apex court had directed state to conduct fresh admissions for only open category students. 
• The order further stated that “no student shall be permitted to change his/her preference given at the time of making application”. With SC’s order, the seats available for open-category students have increased