New Delhi: Just 5 days prior to the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for all-India quota seats for the undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses, the Supreme Court of India took up two PILs filed by doctors from 15 states and union territories that challenge the decision to introduce a reservation of 27% for OBC and 10% for economically weaker section (EWS) for these seats.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Vikram Nath and Hima Kohli have issued notices to the Center, the Medical Counselling Committee and the National Board of Examination after hearing arguments by senior advocates Arvind Datar and Vikas Singh. The advocates had appeared for 27 doctors from Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Assam.

Recently, the Madras high court upheld the 27% OBC reservation in all-India quota in government medical colleges across states, while striking down the EWS quota of 10%, on the ground that it enabled the total reservation to move past the 50% ceiling. 

The petitioners stated that in the year 2007, the Supreme Court had introduced a reservation of 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs under the AIQ scheme. As the OBC and EWS quotas are introduced, the total reservation in AIQ seats would move to 59.5%, which would be in violation of the Apex Court judgment in Indra Sawhney case wherein a constitution bench had limited the total reservation at 50% in order to prevent reverse discrimination of merit.

Source: ET Healthworld