INI CET 2024 : Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Declaration Of INI CET Seat Allotment Results In Plea Challenging AIIMS Quota

The Supreme Court today (August 14) refused to stay the declaration of final seat allotment results of the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI CET) 2024 exam.

The plea for stay was raised in a petition challenging the 'Institutional Preference' Quota exceeding 50% given to graduates from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the postgraduate admissions.

When the bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra adjourned the matter till August 20, the petitioners' requested that the results be not declared till then.

"Let them hold on the publication of results, let them hold for two more days ....nothing is going to happen, third round, ultimately 3rd party rights will be affected," Senior Advocate PB Suresh for the petitioners urged.

Advocate Dushyant Parashar, for AIIMS, said that the stay of the result will have a cascading effect on the admissions of the next years. He added that doctors across the country are waiting for the results.

Refusing to stay the result, CJI said : "To Stall the declaration of (Counselling) results for PG medical admissions is a serious matter, we don't just pass an order... students all over the country, they have to take admissions"

AIIMS INICET is scheduled to announce the seat allocation results today (August 14).

It may be noted that for the July 2024 INICET session, the scores of the written test were declared on May 25.

The Institutional Preference quota is essentially an internal reservation system where a percentage of post-graduate admission seats are reserved for MBBS students (belonging to the general category) already studying at AIIMS.

On the last hearing, the Court while issuing notice had sought responses from Union and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The Court will now hear the matter on August 20.

Arguments of the petitioners :

The plea contends that several institutes which form part of the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INICET) have granted seats under the Institutional Preference beyond the 50% limit set by the Supreme Court in Saurabh Chaudri & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.

In the said decision, the Court upheld the constitutionality of the 50% (enhanced from 25% as set in AIIMS' Students Union v. AIIMS &Ors. ) Institutional Preference quota in PG admissions to AIIMS. The Court had clarified that this was only an interim measure and directed the state to develop a mechanism to ensure fair allocation of seats based on merit. However, the petitioner claims that these directions have not been acted upon even after 21 years.

The petition argues that seats reserved for the "Unreserved" category were allocated to existing students of INICET institutes. At AIIMS Delhi, students with ranks in the tens of thousands were granted seats while the petitioner (ranked 287) was not.

The petition seeks a writ of mandamus (1) directing the respondents (Union and AIIMS) to allot a seat for any one discipline the petitioner preferred; (2) Confine the Institutional Preference Quota to 50% in the post-graduate admissions as per previous Court decisions; (3) directing the respondents to act upon the Supreme Court's previous suggestions and codify how "Institutional Preference" is implemented; (4) It also requests the framing of appropriate rules to ensure that this preference is used only when there is a distinct similarity between two or more candidates.

Case Details: . DR. SUKRIT NANDA M. Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ANR. W.P.(C) No. 464/2024 & Connected matter