SC junks Govt’s plea to allow 16% seats for Maratha in PG medical, dental seats
   Date :10-May-2019

 
Staff Reporter:
 
In a major setback to State Government seeking to implement 16 per cent Maratha quota in medical and dental post-graduate courses commencing current academic year, the Supreme Court of India on Thursday dismissed a special leave petition filed by Maharashtra Government. The Apex Court upheld the decision of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court and made it clear that the 16 per cent reservation provided for Maratha community under Special Economic Backward Class (SEBC) for current academic year would have to go since the reservation for post graduate courses was introduced after the admission process was initiated. A division bench consisting of Justice L Nageshwar Rao and Justice Mukesh Kumar Shah, while dismissing the SLP, made it clear that competent authority will have to prepare the list afresh as per original notification.
 
The students admitted against SEBC quote in seat matrix can be adjusted, if seats remain vacant after admission rounds, the Supreme Court made it clear much to the joy of petitioner-students opposing alleged excessive reservations in medical and dental courses. Rattled by the decision, the State Government in a notification announced to scrap the list-I and list-II prepared after allotting seats to all categories including SEBC. The notification declared to prepare the list afresh. Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the State Government stated that the admission process had already commenced and halting it at this stage would lead to chaos and social disharmony. The State Government stoutly justified the reservation granted to SEBC and stated that petitioners did not raise any objections till the seat matrix was announced on March 27.
 
The Supreme Court had sought details of the admissions done in State quota in the Government, Government aided, Corporation run, Private unaided and other medical and dental colleges imparting post-graduate education. Accordingly, the State Government submitted that Round-I and Round-II of NEET-PG 2019 for medical courses and NEET-MDS 2019 for dental courses have been completed as per process. However, the Supreme Court rejected the plea of State and concurred with the High Court which found that the seat matrix prepared on March 27 taking into account the reservation introduced mid-way for SEBC disregarding the rule was unsustainable in law and directed the authorities to prepare fresh selection list as per norms.
 
The High Court division bench consisting of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Pushpa Ganediwala while pronouncing the order on May 2 had permitted the DMER to go ahead with medical and dental admissions on the basis of March 8, 2019 notification only for the courses whose process was initiated on or after November 30, 2018 (when Maratha reservation was introduced). The notification will have no application to the process of admission which began on October 16 (dental) and November 2 (medical), 2018. This is a second major setback to the supporters of excessive reservation in medical and technical courses.
 
The student community had staged massive protests against the excessive reservation introduced last year by the State Government pointing out that open category students were left with hardly any seats. The petitioner-students had strongly questioned the legality of reservation provided for Maratha community mid-way, putting future of aspirants in a lurch. According to them, retrospective application of reservation has led to excessive reservation which is not permissible as per Supreme Court’s order and is a Himalayan blunder. The State Government countered the argument citing inordinate delay by the petitioners in approaching the constitutional court while claiming that even while notifying the admission process and number of vacant seats, the State Government had calculated the reservation for Maratha community to avoid any controversy and confusion. The petitioner claimed that the law providing 16 per cent reservation in public, private aided and unaided educational institutions came into force from November 30, 2018, two months after the process was started.
 
This 16 per cent has to be calculated in relation to total seats available in the institution while other reserved seats are concerned, the calculations of reserved seats are made as per available seats and not in relation to total seats, which is per se discriminatory and unreasonable. The gravity of situation came to fore on March 27 when seat matrix was made public. In the entire Vidarbha region, due to existing reservation only 72 PG medical seats were left for open category and that number came down to only 22 after this additional 16 per cent reservation which was barely 5.96 per cent.
 
For PG dental courses, only 9 out of 37 seats in Government and aided colleges, and only 22 out of 383 seats in private colleges were for the open category. For MD, MS courses 233 of 972 seats in Government and aided colleges and 37 of 469 seats in private colleges were for open category. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Adv Nishant Katneshwarkar appeared for the State. Senior Counsel Dhruv Mehta and Adv Ashwin Deshpande appeared for the original petitioner-student.