The Supreme Court has rejected a petition filed by students of Tamil Nadu as well as the ruling party of the state AIADMK desiring a 50 per cent reservation under OBC quota in NEET medical seats in the state in undergraduate, postgraduate and dental courses for the academic session 2020-2021.
A bench constituting Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi has rejected the interim prayer made in the pleas for implementation of 50 per cent quota for the current academic year 2020-2021.
The Tamil Nadu government had challenged the judgement of Madras High Court where OBC reservation under All India Quota (AIQ) was discarded in non-central institutes.
The Madras High Court in July had cleared the decks on OBC reservation under All India Quota (AIQ) medical seats in non-central institutions and the ruling party then gave the Centre three months time to decide on the percentage.
AIADMK had objected to the ruling of the Madras High Court earlier. The Centre then declared that it will be applicable to provide the state with 50 per cent OBC quota in Tamil Nadu medical colleges in the current academic year.
The Tamil Nadu high court had affirmed that there is no direct rule which stated that the OBC reservation should be implemented in state surrendered AIQ seats of the UG/PG medical courses in the state-run medical colleges within Tamil Nadu, subject to any further directions or orders of the apex court.
The court also said that allowing reservation in AIQ seats will be like compromising with student’s merit and said that the argument gets diluted as NEET examinations are now clearly designed to only allow admission of such candidates who secure minimum merit in the entrance examination.
The High court had said, "Thus, application of any reservation rule, be at the instance of the state-specific law or as per any reservation policy framed by the central government for AQI seats will not affect merit.”
However, the high court had restrained itself from passing a mandamus against the Centre to provide the reservation as it relates to a policy decision.
The Supreme Court had asked the Madras High Court to decide on the suit filed against the decision of the central government on not to grant 50 per cent quota to OBCs in medical seats which have been given up by the state in all India quota for undergraduate, postgraduate and dental courses in 2020-21.
The state government had moved the Supreme Court on July 2 seeking a direction to the high court to expeditiously decide its plea.
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The TN state government and various political parties have challenged the Centre’s decision for not granting 50 per cent reservation to OBC candidates which is there under Tamil Nadu law.
Petitioners, in their interim prayers before the High Court, said they would protest against ongoing admissions for PG medical courses.
The petition had alleged that the Centre also did not follow its policy of 27 per cent reserved seats for OBCs under the 2006 Act.