HC imposes ₹50k on review petition

HC imposes ₹50k on review petition

EWS Quota: Finds No Merit In Contention

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chandigarh: 19.05.2020

The Punjab and Haryana high court has imposed Rs 50,000 cost on a review petition seeking directions not to implement the reservation for economically-weaker section (EWS) category for admission in postgraduate MD/MS in Haryana from this session.

The division bench comprising Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain and Justice Jaswant Singh has passed these orders while dismissing a review petition filed by Vikram Pal and others, who had applied for admission into the post-graduate medical courses in Haryana.

The petitioners had pleaded that reservation for the economically weaker sections category (EWS) vide notification dated April 15, 2020 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.

Contesting the petition, the counsel for Haryana government argued that at the time of issuance of the notification dated April 15, 2020, 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. He, thus, submits 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 issuance of the notification dated April 15, 2020, whereas the previous process was only for determination of merit by the national board of examinations by conducting the NEET-PG-2020 examination.

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.

After hearing both the parties, the HC found that there was no merit in the contention of 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,” observed the HC in its May 14 order released on Monday.

The petitioners had pleaded that reservation for the EWS vide notification dated April 15, 2020 issued by Haryana was not permissible as it was being implemented after the admissions process started in November 2019