Govt considering OBC reservation in All India MBBS, PG seats

With the demand for Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation gaining momentum in the undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental seats across India, the central government is planning to implement the same from the 2021-22 academic session.

Students belonging to the OBC category started their protest demanding implementation of OBC reservation in all India quota after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the reservation scheme for 2021-22, on July 13 this year. In its notification related to the reservation in all India quota seats, the NTA announced reservations for SC, ST, OBC (in centrally-run institutions), PwBD and EWS. However, it also clarified that as the matter related to OBC reservation in all India quota in state surrendered seats is pending in Supreme Court, it will depend on the final judgment issued by the apex court.
This decision of NTA did not go down well with the students belonging to the OBC community and protests began. Some of the students association and activists have also sent their petitions to the central government and the Chief Justice of India to pave way for the implementation of OBC reservation in NEET-UG, PG counselling.
As per a senior official in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), who did not wish to be named, the Central Government is considering implementing OBC reservation in the all India quota in state surrendered seats. Speaking to Shiksha he said that the government will submit its reply in the Supreme Court “soon”. “However, the government want to stick to the formula that total reservation should not exceed the limit of 50 percent, excluding EWS quota,” he added.

OBC reservation in Supreme Court

A petition related to OBC reservation in MBBS UG, PG and dental courses seats is pending in the Supreme Court since 2015. The SC is yet to deliver its final verdict on the case because of which the NTA announced that it will not be able to implement OBC reservation for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test UG (NEET-UG) 2021 in all India quota in state surrendered seals until the said petition is disposed of.

Last year, the Madras High Court directed the central government to constitute a committee comprising the representatives of Directorate General of Health Services, Government of Tamil Nadu, Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India for implementation of OBC reservation in the All India Quota Scheme for MBBS/PG admission from next academic session i.e, 2021-22.

The committee submitted its report to the central government with the recommendation and based on those recommendations the central government is likely to submit its reply in the Supreme Court.

The students demanding OBC reservations from this year are alleging that due to the non-implementation of OBC reservations they are losing thousands of seats every year. Students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) have already been granted the reservation in all India Quota in state surrendered seats including the central government-run institutions.
Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) informed the Parliament that it has not received any complaint related to reserved category seats going to general category students. 

There are close to 83,000 MBBS, 27,000 BDS seats that are offered through NEET. Since last year AIIMS, New Delhi and JIPMER, Puducherry have started using NEET counselling for admission to nearly 1900 MBBS seats offered across different campuses of AIIMS and 249 MBBS seats at JIPMER.