OBC, EWS quota under AIQ won’t violate rights of gen category: Govt Group Of Docs Had Sought Stay On Move

OBC, EWS quota under AIQ won’t violate rights of gen category: Govt

Group Of Docs Had Sought Stay On Move

AmitAnand.Choudhary@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:20.20.2021

Justifying its decision to implement 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBC) and 10% for economically weaker sections in the all-India quota (AIQ) for admission in medical and dental colleges, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that grievances of the general category students, who challenged the decision, is “unfounded and misconceived” as it does not violate their fundamental rights.

The AIQ scheme was introduced in 1986 at the Supreme Court’s instance to provide domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any state to get admission in a good medical college located in another state. AIQ at present consists of 15% of total available undergraduate seats and 50% of total available postgraduate seats in government medical colleges. There was no reservation in AIQ up to 2007 when the SC permitted 15% reservation for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, OBC and EWS quotas have also been extended to AIQ.

A batch of MBBS doctors had approached the court, seeking interim stay on the Centre’s notification issued on July 29 for enforcing OBC and EWS quota in AIQ.

1,500 OBC students in MBBS & 2,500 in PG courses will benefit via reservation

A group of MBBS doctors, who are aspiring to pursue higher education in medicine, had approached the apex court through advocate Vivek Singh, seeking interim stay on the Centre’s notification issued on July 29 for enforcing OBC and EWS quota in AIQ.

They contended that the Centre’s decision was contrary to the law laid down by the apex court and leaves only a miniscule number of seats for the general category students. Countering the petitioners, the Centre in its reply said the decision was taken to bring equality of opportunities and without cost to the candidates from the unreserved category as the number of available seats has gone up. It said that in the last six years, MBBS seats in the country increased by 56 % from 54,348 seats in 2014 to 84,649 in 2020 and the number of PG seats increased by 80 % from 30,191 in 2014 to 54,275 seats in 2020. In the same period, 279 new colleges have been established and now the country has 558 medical colleges, the affidavit said.

“It is submitted that reservation, both to the backward category as well as EWS category, is on the broader considerations of equality of opportunities and the equality mandate viewed in the perspective of social justice. The government of India has therefore decided to provide for 27% reservation for OBC and 10% reservation for EWS in the AIQ scheme. The OBC students from across the country will now be able to take benefit of this reservation in the AIQ scheme to compete in any state. The reservation in AIQ being a central scheme, the central list of OBCs shall be used for this reservation,” the affidavit said.

Around 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 in PG courses will benefit through this reservation. The government’s decision will benefit more than 550 EWS students for MBBS and around 1000 EWS students for PG medical courses each year.

It is reiterated that to lay down the criteria for reservation for the admission in the AIQ seats of medical and dental courses is within the powers of the government of India and this essentially is a question of policy

— CENTRE’S AFFIDAVIT