SC upholds OBC quota, counselling for NEET to begin

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Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

08.01.2022

New Delhi: In a boost to reservation for backward classes in the medical stream and in a big relief for the government, the Supreme Court on Friday put its stamp of approval on the 27% OBC quota in MBBS and MD courses under all India quota (AIQ) seats. It also permitted the Centre to earmark additional 10% seats for economically weaker sections (EWS) for the academic year 2021-22.

The decision would pave the way for resumption of counselling for 15% AIQ seats under NEET-UG (MBBS) and 50% AIQ seats under NEETPG (MD) for 2021-22, which October. Citing official sources, agency reports said the counselling schedule could start from next week.

The bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna did not pen down the detailed reasons for the judgment due to paucity of time. 

Marks not always an indicator of merit, DMK had argued in SC

It accepted the Ajay Bhushan Pandey committee’s recommendation not to tinker with the existing criteria for identification of EWS candidates.

It was notified in Janu- ary 2019 for the admissions to UG and PG medical courses for 2021-22.

The committee’s report passing muster with the court was a boost for the Centre as both the OBC quota in AIQ seats and EWS are major policy-political planks that reach out to major social constituencies.

However, the court said the ₹8 lakh annual income criteria for identifying EWS candidates remained a con- tentious issue and that it would undertake in the third week of March a detailed scrutiny of the existing as well as the tweaked criteria recommended by the Pandey committee, which had submitted its report on December 31 and has since been accepted by the Centre.

DMK, which was in the forefront for 27% OBC reservation in AIQ medical seats, through senior advocate P Wilson, had passionately argued for retaining the OBC quota on the ground that “marks cannot always be an indicator of merit”. Wilson on Friday congratulated the bench for rendering a historic social justice judgment. The Centre through solicitor general Tushar Mehta had informed the court about the pitfalls in changing the EWS criteria at this late stage and assured that the general category candidate interests remain unharmed as the government has increased seats in all medical colleges by 25%.