Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): After the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) submitted a reply in the High Court over double advantage to in-service candidates, the High Court has not vacated the stay on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for Postgraduate (NEET PG) counselling. The DME has put ongoing counselling on hold after the HC interim stay.
DME has taken a plea for 30% reservation based on the Supreme Court's (SC) observation that on completion of the course, the state government should formulate a policy of making the in-service doctors who obtain entry in postgraduate medical degree courses through an independent in-service channel execute bonds for such a sum as the respective states may consider fit and proper.
As per the DME reply submitted in the High Court, merely because a certain percentage of seats has been allocated to in-service candidates, it does not necessarily follow that such candidates (petitioners) are prohibited from competing for open seats.
The DME further said that grant of incentive marks to in-service medical officers serving in rural, remote and difficult areas is founded upon a legitimate public purpose and is intended to strengthen the public healthcare delivery system in the state.
The state faces persistent difficulties in ensuring the availability of qualified medical officers in rural, tribal, remote and difficult areas. Medical officers posted in such areas discharge their duties in challenging conditions, often without the facilities and professional exposure ordinarily available in urban institutions.
The incentive mechanism is, therefore, intended not merely to reward past service but also to encourage medical graduates to serve in underserved areas and thereby ensure the availability of medical facilities to the rural population.
Senior advocate Aditya Sanghi, who appeared on behalf of the petitioner, said, Rules do not authorise the methodology adopted for preparing the common merit list in the aforesaid manner, which results in grant of double benefit to the in-service candidates in as much as they become entitled to 30% incentive/weightage marks as well as 30% quota reservation on the total number of state seats.
The addition of incentive marks to the raw NEET score improves the merit position of the in-service candidates.
