New Delhi: In a setback to medical aspirants, the Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the operation of notifications issued by the Maharashtra government, which had reserved 10 per cent seats in the post graduate medical and dental courses for students belonging to the Economically Weaker Section. The notifications were issued in February and March this year, which were challenged before a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose. The court noted that the admission process for PG medical courses in Maharashtra started in November 2018 while the 103rd Constitutional amendment granting 10 per cent EWS quota was passed in January this year.
“Rules of game cannot be changed when the game is on” the top court said, pointing out that the admission process for PG Medical courses in Maharashtra for 2019-20 started long before the 10 per cent quota for EWS came into force. The vacation bench also said 10 per cent EWS quota cannot be granted at the cost of others unless additional seats are created by the Medical Council of India. The admissions for the 2019-20 academic year close on Friday. The balance between the competing claims of parties involved will be upset if the reserved category students are allowed to take admissions in the PG Medical course and at a later stage their admissions were found to be untenable, it said.
The bench said that its directions are interim in nature and will be operative till the final decision is taken on the plea filed by three students of general category. The bench also clarified that it is always amenable to the MCI sanctioning additional seats for accommodating ten per cent students falling in the EWS category. The court noted that in a similar matter related to 16 per cent quota for Maratha community in admissions to educational institutions in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court had recently held that the Act granting reservation, which came into effect on November 30, 2018, could not be made applicable as the admission process was initiated earlier on November 2, 2018.
