State moves Supreme Court against quota order

Mumbai: The state government has challenged Bombay High Court’s decision to stay quota for Maratha community in PG medical and dental courses for this year in the Supreme Court. In a special leave petition, state has argued that as per the schedule provided by the Medical Council of India, the entire admission process for state quota is required to be completed by May 12.

“The admission process had started and any interference in the said process would create a great degree of confusion. Thus, in view of the completion of two rounds of admission, the situation has become irreversible” petition states.

On May 2, The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court (HC) ruled that the newly-introduced socially and economically backward castes (SEBC) quota for Marathas won’t be applicable to post-graduate (PG) medical and dental courses in the state for the academic year of 2019-20. In its verdict, the court also rendered the government’s distribution of seats in medical and dental colleges to various caste groups to be illegal, even though the first round of admissions is already over.

The division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Pushpa Ganediwala ruled that the state government’s March 8 notification pertaining to socially and economically backward castesquota in health science courses won’t apply to PG dental and medical admissions as the registration process for their respective National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Tests (NEET) had begun on October 16 and November 2, 2018, respectively. The law to introduce 16 per cent SEBC reservation was enacted on November 30 last year. The court said that the quota will apply to courses whose admission process started on or will start after November 30, 2018.  The court was hearing three petitions challenging the implementation of the SEBC quota in PG medical and dental courses.