NEET PG 2019: Apex court strikes down EWS quota in Maharashtra PG admissions

NEW DELHI, May 31: The Supreme Court of India has struck down the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota reservation for PG medical admissions in Maharashtra, in the current academic year. A vacation bench constituting Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose stated that the reservation cannot be implemented retrospectively in an ongoing academic session. The union government had enacted the law on EWS in the month of January and PG medical admissions commenced in the month of November last year.

“10 percent of EWS quota cannot be granted to an ongoing academic session. You cannot change the rules of a game when the game is on” the court said. The vacation bench also observed that reservation cannot be provided at the cost of others and to the existing number of seats. It is imperative that the Medical Council of India create an additional share of seats in order to implement the EWS reservations. After the quashing of EWS criteria, admission of about 25 candidates has been affected.

Background

Rajat Rajendra Aggarwal had challenged two circulars released by the Maharashtra government on the effectuation of EWS reservation in the state. He contested the enforcement of EWS reservation on the grounds that it undercuts the seats meant for general category candidates.

Earlier this week, the top court had asked the government of Maharashtra to file an affidavit informing on the status of implementation of EWS quota in the postgraduate medical admissions. To which the state attorney responded by informing the court that 10% reservations have been granted in the academic year 2019- 20.

Reservation v/s Merit

Maharashtra PG medical admission has been under a whirlwind of reservations. On May 20, the state had promulgated an ordinance reinstating the Socially and Economically Backward Class reservation in the pg medical admission in the current academic year. The court had announced the scrapping of SEBC reservation in response to which the state government promulgated the ordinance. However, many candidates from the open category have challenged the ordinance citing that it infringes upon the seat availability for candidates who are not covered any reservation criteria whatsoever. The ordinance will soon be brought before Maharashtra high court.

SEBC quota reservation and EWS quota collectively take up 26% percent reservation which is applicable on the current count of seats available under open category. The reservation is not just for PG admissions but will also be extended to MBBS admissions. Implementation of reservations like these is being seen as ‘murder of merit’ by the general category candidates.