SC issues notice to Centre on plea challenging AIQ reservations in MBBS

Supreme Court has issued a notice to the centre, MCC, and NBE on a plea seeking a stay on the 27% reservation for OBC and 10% reservation for EWS candidates in AIQ for medical studies.

The Supreme Court of India has issued a notice to the Central Government, Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) and National Board of Examination (NBE) on a petition challenging the 27% reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) and a 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates in the All India Quota AIQ for medical studies from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards.

The petitioners are doctors and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate) (NEET-PG 2021) aspirants. They have filed the writ petition in the apex court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India to bring to the notice of the court the grave and serious problems faced by scores of students in India due to this reservation policy.

The petitioners seek quashing of MCC notice on July 29 for implementing the prescribed reservation criteria and also direction to MCC to proceed with NEET-PG 2021 without the reservation policy.

Horizontal or vertical reservation 

As reported in LiveLaw, the petitioners' counsel, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, said in the court, "This is against Madras HC's order. It raises a question as to whether the 8 lakh should be criteria for considering the EWS category. The next is whether there should be a horizontal or vertical reservation."

A notice has been issued to the government in regards to the reservation policy granted by the central government on July 29. There was a huge demand for this reservation and students from OBC were pushing this and finally, the government had approved the reservations.

The reservation is applicable for the undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental course including Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Doctor of Medicine (MD), Master of Science (MS), Diploma, Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), and Master of Dental Sciences (MDS).

While approving the reservation, the government on July 29 said that the reservation will benefit 5500 students - 2,500 OBC students in postgraduate, 1,500 OBC students in MBBS, 1,000 EWS students in postgraduate, and 550 EWS students in MBBS from the current academic session.

AIQ Scheme was introduced in 1986 under Supreme Court's direction to provide domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students.

Read more:

• 10% EWS reservation in AIQ seats not permissible without SC approval: Madras HC
• All India OBC Students Association thanks govt for the 27% quota in NEET