HC’s interim stay to PG Dental admission process
| Date :05-Apr-2019 |
Staff Reporter;
Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday granted ad-interim stay to declaration of first select list to fill Post-Graduate (PG) seats of Dental Courses. The High Court, while hearing the petitions filed by aspirant students challenging the excessive reservation and inclusion of Maratha reservation after the process was started, directed the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) and Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) not to declare list of Master of Dental Surgery (MDS).
A division bench consisting of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Pushpa Ganediwala was hearing the petition filed by Dr Shivani Raghuvanshi and Dr Pranjali Charde alleging many glitches in reservation for various categories and injustice towards socially and educationally backward classes. The petitioner students have appeared for NEET MDS-2019 examination. According to the petitioners, there are 383 seats of MDS in dental colleges of which 36 seats are earmarked for OBCs while 61 seats are reserved for SEBC while in Private Medical Colleges, out of 469 PG seats, 45 are earmarked for OBCs and 75 are for SEBCs.
The process started on October 16, 2018 and the first list is to be declared on April 5. The petitioners at the round of publication of provisional list found themselves eligible for securing admissions to the colleges preferred by them, but due to introduction of 16 per cent quota for Marathas as SEBC, they are finding it difficult to get admission. 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 and 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 petitioners claimed that mid-way introducing such a reservation for the process which began in October 2018 was patently illegal and unconstitutional. Even this reservation is subject matter of challenge before the High Court and Government was well aware of the difficulties likely to arose in its implementation. The High Court, while issuing notice to respondents, observed that as Section 16(2) of latest enactment prima facie creates a bar upon providing reservation for the newly created category of SEBC candidates in the current admission process and restrained MUHS and DMER from publishing the first merit list of MEET MDS seats on April 5. Adv Ashwin Deshpande appeared for the petitioners. AGP Shamsi Haider represented the State.