Aspirants of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET PG) demand that the allotment lists published thus far be set aside as they are in violation of the established reservation policy. They demand that fresh allotment lists be issued in compliance with the policy.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, November 15 asked the Centre to file an affidavit in a petition seeking proper implementation of reservation policy in NEET PG Counselling, as per The New Indian Express. Advocate Prashant Bhushan was appearing for petitioner Pankaj Kumar Mandal and others in the case. The main petitioner in the case, Pankaj, who is also a NEET PG aspirant, informed EdexLive that following the declaration of results of the first round of NEET PG counselling on September 28, it was found that reserved category students who, on the basis of merit, are eligible for admissions against the 50 per cent seats in the general category, were still allotted reserved category seats.
"For example, if an aspirant from the OBC category got 73 Rank, he was still allotted an OBC seat, even though reserved category students can get through a seat in the open category in the first round of counselling," Pankaj said. “According to the seat matrix published by the Medical Counseling Committee, a total of 10,954 seats are available under the All-India Quota. Reserved category candidates who easily come under the top 50 per cent of the seats have been assigned reserved category seats instead of unreserved seats they qualify for,” the petition, which EdexLive has a copy of, stated.
Supreme Court judgments in this regard
In a judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in 1996, it was ordered that, "A student who is entitled to be admitted on the basis of merit though belonging to a reserved category cannot be considered to be admitted against seats reserved for reserved category," according to the petition.
Further, in 2014, the Supreme Court upheld this counselling method, wherein, the seats to be filled by open competition (unreserved) should be filled up first "wherein the candidates should be called for counselling based on merit alone irrespective of whether they belong to SC, ST or OBC," the petition stated. Following this, the reservation category candidates (SC, ST, OBC) will be counselled to fill up the seats designated for them in their respective categories.
However, aspirants claim that the counselling process this year violated this reservation policy. "They are pushing a meritorious student to a reserved seat even though we are eligible for general seats," Pankaj stated.
NEET UG Counselling
Professor Suraj Mandal, who is also an activist, stated that deserving reserved category students are not being able to avail seats due to the aforementioned anomaly. "The petition was filed in this regard and a response is expected by Monday, November 21," he said. The professor also mentioned that although this case pertains to PG students, a similar problem plagues UG students as well.
In a letter to MP P Wilson, the Medicos Parents Association, Andhra Pradesh, stated that out of the 2,445 MBBS seats that are reserved for OBC category students in the 2022 admissions, 2,396 candidates "who got better rank than the last rank of General Category" were pushed to OBC seats which is against the Supreme Court judgment. "Hence, we request you make the consultations with the central Government Authorities and the Union Ministers to implement the Hon’ble Supreme Court orders with the true spirit to protect the 27 percent reservations for OBCs under All India quota and save the constitutional rights of the OBCs," the letter stated.
