SC upholds OBC reservation in NEET all-India quota seats High Mark Is Not Merit; Quota Brings Equality, It Says

 SC upholds OBC reservation in NEET all-India quota seats

High Mark Is Not Merit; Quota Brings Equality, It Says

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Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

21,01,2022

New Delhi: Settling the perennial merit vs quota debate while upholding reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the intensely competitive all-India quota (AIQ) medical seats, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that scores in entrance tests do not reflect the social, economic and cultural advantage that accrues to certain classes and contributes to their success in such examinations.

Rejecting the challenge to the constitutional validity of 27% OBC quota in the highly sought-after AIQ seats in  MBBS and MD courses, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna said, “Merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunity. ” “High scores in an examination are not a proxy for merit. Merit should be socially contextualised and reconceptualised as an instrument that advances social goods like equality that we as a society value. In such a context, reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers its distributive consequences,” the bench said.

Writing the judgment, Justice Chandrachud said, “Competitive examinations assess basic current competency to allocate educational resources but are not reflective of excellence, capabilities and potential of an individual which are also shaped by lived experiences, subsequent training and individual character. Crucially, open competitive examinations do not reflect the social, economic and cultural advantage that accrues to certain classes and contributes to their success in such examinations. ”

The bench said the 10% EWS quota for undergraduate and post-graduate medical courses would also continue for the 2021-22 academic year, as judicial propriety would not permit the SC to pass an interim order staying the criteria for determination of the EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) category. “It is a settled principle of law that in matters involving challenge to the constitutionality of a legislation or a rule, the court must be wary to pass an interim order, unless the court is convinced that the rules are prima facie arbitrary,” the bench said while scheduling the exercise for detailed scrutiny of the constitutional validity of EWS quota to the third week of March.

Returning to the burning debate over merit vs quota, the bench rejected the argument that once an OBC candidate secures an undergraduate AIQ medical seat, he/ she should not be entitled to again fall back on his backwardness to secure seat in the AIQ post-graduate medical seat, where merit alone should be the criteria.