The Supreme Court, on January 7, allowed the Centre to go ahead with NEET PG and UG 2021 counselling based on 10 per cent reservations for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in All India Quota. The move comes a few days after the Centre had filed an affidavit in the court stating that they accept the recommendation of the committee set up to assess the annual limit for EWS.

The Bench has now listed the petition for a final hearing to determine the validity of EWS criteria as determined by the Pandey Committee in the third week of March. While passing the order, Justice DY Chandrachud, said, "We have upheld the validity of OBC. In EWS, we've upheld the criteria for this year so that the admissions are not dislocated for the current academic year. We will hear the petition with regards to the EWS criteria later." The dates for the counselling are yet to be confirmed. 

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The counselling was delayed after a plea was filed in the apex court against the Centre’s decision to revisit the criteria for the determination of the EWS quota in the AIQ. Resident doctors of various hospitals under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country protested over a delay in the counselling session. All emergency and routine services in Delhi hospitals were boycotted by the resident doctors. This went on for almost the whole month of December, they called off the strike by the end of the month owing to rising COVID cases and assurances from the government authorities.