NO Maratha Quota in PG Medical Admissions: Students threaten Agitation
PG medical aspirants who are reportedly affected by the HC ruling are planning to launch an agitation if the apex court's ruling doesn't come in their favour.
MUMBAI: A group of PG Medical Aspirants has threatened to launch an agitation over the Bombay High Court's ruling that the 16 per cent quota offered to Marathas will not be applicable on admissions to post-graduate medical courses this year.
Around 250 students have been affected by the ruling given by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court last week, Patil, who recently took admission in a Pune-based medical college, claimed while talking to PTI.
The state has filed a petition against the HC ruling in the Supreme Court, which is likely to hear the matter on Friday, a government official said. A representative of the students affected by the HC ruling said if the state government failed to resolve the matter, they would launch an agitation.
On May 4, the division bench of honourable Justices Sunil Shukre and Pushpa Ganediwala ruled in their order that the March 8 notification about the implementation of the new 16 per cent reservation for the Maratha community, under the Socially and Economically Backward Classes (SEBC) quota; shall not be applicable to the PG medical admission process, which had started earlier.
On November 30 last year, the Maharashtra Legislature had passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Marathas, declared SEBC by the government and hence it decided to grant them the reservation.
Medical Dialogues had been extensively reporting about the reservation issues in PG medical admissions that continued to upset meritorious MBBS pass outs in the state.
As of now, in Maharashtra, 50 % of medical seats in government-run medical colleges are for reserved category (SC/ST/OBC/ VJNT). Out of the other 50% which is known as the open category; 14% of seats go to Persons with Disability (PwD), defence and other quotas. There is also a special quota (depending on eligible candidates) for students from the reserved categories who are eligible for an open quota seat based on their scores, ranging from 3%-5%.
In addition, 10% has been fixed for medical students belonging to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota.
Further, the implementation of 16% Maratha quota was done which left a meagre 5 % for candidates vying medical admission on merit basis.
Read Also: Where is the Merit in PG Medical Admissions? With Maratha quota in place, Medicos to again approach HC
During the course of hearing since weeks, the government maintained before the HC that the Maratha quota and creation of the new category were legal and valid.
In the hearing where the Maratha quota was ruled out, the bench had issued the following directions:
We direct that the notification dated 8.3.2019, insofar as medical admission process is concerned, shall be applied to the medical admissions the procedure for which has started or would start on or after 30th November, 2018, subject to result of any other writ petition, if pending, and the notification would have no application to the present medical admission process 2019 which began w.e.f. 16th October, 2018 and 2nd November, 2018 respectively.
Consequently, it is also directed that the revised provisional seat matrix published on 27.3.2019, insofar as it makes a provision for the category of SEBC candidates, being illegal, shall not be given effect to for the limited purpose of SEBC reservation in current admission process. The respondents, however, would conduct the admission process and complete it in accordance with applicable law, rules and orders before commencement of the SEBC Act, 2018.
In view of the HC's order, some of the Maratha community students who could not get admission to the post-graduate medical courses approached the state government which subsequently moved the Supreme Court.
Read Also: Maratha quota in PG medical admissions: State government moves Supreme court
Now the PG medical aspirants who are reportedly affected by the HC ruling are planning to launch an agitation if the apex court's ruling doesn't come in their favour.
"We have decided to wait for the Supreme Court's ruling. If the state fails to come up with an amicable solution, we will organise a state-wide agitation," a representative of the affected students said.
Since the Maratha students got admissions this year under the SEBC category, they did not think of applying for seats elsewhere or outside the state, Suyash Patil said.
"But with this HC ruling, our admissions are likely to be cancelled and the time limit to seek admissions in other colleges is also over. We fear losing an entire year if the Supreme Court backs the HC ruling," he said.
Read Also: NO Maratha quota for PG Medical Admissions this year: Bombay High Court holds Reservation Arbitrary
A group of affected students also met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday, requesting him to take steps to resolve the issue.
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