PG Medical Courses : Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With 20% Quota For In-Service Candidates In Maharashtra

A Division Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli, while declining to set aside the High Court order, observed,

"In our considered that the judgement of the High Court does not fall for interference owing to the above reasons."

The Court was considering a petition challenging the 20% in-service reservation in Post-Graduate Medical Admission in Maharashtra. The main aspect of the case was a government resolution dated September 26 which provided for in-service reservation to 20% for in-service candidates.

Senior Advocate Anand Grover appearing for the petitioners submitted that the government resolution in question was issued after admission process had commenced. He even relief on a Supreme Court judgement which had observed that the rules of the game cannot be altered once the admission process has begun.

Secondly, he argued that that the State government had not collected any data before introducing the resolution. This, he said, was evident from fact, out 1416 seats for PG medical students, 286 seats were available for in-service quota but only 69 candidates appeared for NEET PG. Out of which, 52 were granted admission. Therefore, the 20% reservation was disproportionate, he argued.

The standing counsel for the Maharashtra government, Advocate Abhay Dharmadhikari submitted that there was no change in rules governing the admission was brought about mid-stream. The provisions of the brochure issued by the State government specifically stated that in-service reservation would abide by such resolutions issued by the government from time to time, he argued.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde argued that those students to whom admissions were granted in the first round of counselling, are not parties to the proceedings and that there was no challenge to the government resolution in question.

The primary principle that the court had analysed was the government resolution dated September 26 which provided for in-service reservation to 20% for in-service candidates, should apply for the current academic year or not as there had been a change in rules after admission process commenced.

The Court took into account that up until 2017, there was in-service quota in Maharastra for degree courses to the extent of 30%. It came under a cloud after Dinesh Singh Chauhan case. The issue as to whether it is open to state to have reservation for in-service quota for PG courses was settled by a constitutional bench of the Top Court.

The intervenors in the matter apprised the Bench that out of 1416 PG medical seats in the state of Maharashtra, 282 were reserved for in-service candidates. Among them, 268 obtained No-objection certificates from their departments to apply for the in-service reservation. In first round of counselling, 69 students were held to be eligible, having received marks above the cut off. 52 candidates were granted admission. On October 17, the Government of India had issued a communication for the reduction in cut off marks in NEET PG exam by 25 percentiles across all categories. This too, was another aspect that the Court took into consideration.

"The Court has been apprised of the fact that following the above decision, it is likely that additional candidates would become eligible to participate in the subsequent rounds of counselling", the Bench's order recorded.

Case Title: Nipun Tawari And Ors. v. State of Maharashtra And Ors. SLP(C) No. 18616/2022