Bombay HC issues notice to Maha CET Cell, DMER for disqualifying medicos from PG Medical admission

Nagpur: Taking cognizance of the fact that the 2 medicos, petitioners, are duly qualified for PG medical admission under the SEBC quota, the Bombay High Court has issued notices to the Maha CET Cell, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), and State's Higher and Technical Education Department to submit their replies.

According to a recent media report, Justice Pushpa Ganediwala at the Nagpur bench of HC has issued notices to these authorities in view of the petition filed by two medicos who claimed to have been at no fault upon the HC order holding SEBC quota inapplicable for this year's PG medical admissions.

The petitioners notified the court that they have duly cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for PG medical courses, NEET PG and hence applied for admission in medical colleges across Maharashtra.

During the second round of counselling by Maha CET Cell, the petitioners had succeeded in securing admissions. However, they did not join the allotted medical college on May 3; as by then, the High Court had issued the order holding the SEBC quota inapplicable. The HC order was later upheld by the Supreme Court as well.

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 SEBC quota; shall not be applicable to the PG medical admission process, which had started earlier.

In response to the HC order, the state had moved the SC seeking an ex-parte stay on the High Court's judgment and leave to file an appeal against the said judgment.

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SC bench of honourable Justices Nageswara Rao and MR Shah felt that since the admission process had already begun last year the HC order was right.

"Section 16 (2) of the SEBC Act bars the grant of reservation if the process of entrance test had already started before the Act came into force. State counsel Mukul Rohatgi said that the students who had been given seats under the SEBC quota were allotted admissions also under the all India quota. They had left their allotments under the All India and come to Maharashtra hence they would stand to lose."

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However, recently on May 20, the Maharashtra State Reservation (of seats for admission in educational institutions in the State and for appointments in the public services and posts under the State) for SEBC (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 2019 was issued, making the Maratha quota applicable again wherein the list of candidates who had secured admission via the SEBC quota was released by the Maha CET Cell.

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In view the released ordinance, the doctors went to their allotted medical colleges. However, to their grief, they were denied to be a part of this admission procedure. The reason cited for the same by the concerned authorities was that the petitioner medicos had not joined the medical colleges, where they had been granted admission, on the stipulated dates. In response, the two PG medical aspirants moved the HC.

Now, noticing their plea as convincing, the HC bench issued notices to Maha CET Cell, DMER and State's Higher and Technical Education Department, asking them to reply by Thursday, as per TOI