FPJ Legal: Allow NEET PG counselling to proceed as country needs new doctors, Centre tells SC

New Delhi: The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it would not accept a position whereby those falling in the OBC or the EWS category, whether before or after the exercise of revisiting the criterion of Rs 8 lakh annual income, are deprived of something that is legitimately due to them.

It urged the court to let the stalled NEET-PG counselling be allowed to proceed as the demand of resident doctors is genuine and the country needs new doctors, even when the matter of the validity of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota is under adjudication.

"Let the counselling get start over. At that time, we did not know that this situation would come. This is a genuine demand of resident doctors. In the meantime, let your lordships consider the objections," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said.

The NEET-PG candidates, who had challenged a July 29, 2021 notification for the implementation of the OBC and the EWS quotas from the 2021-22 academic year, have opposed the government's justification of applying the Rs 8 lakh income criteria, saying no study has been conducted. A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said the hearing in the matter would continue on Thursday, after which it will pass some orders.