PG Medical Admissions: Classification of remote and rural areas justified by TN Govt

CHENNAI: The order on Tamil Nadu government norms for remote and difficult areas which would fetch incentive marks to in-service candidates in PG medical admissions has been reserved by the Madras High Court. The government has filed a writ against the April 18 order of a single judge bench, canceling two government orders (GO) dated March 9 and 23.

A vacation bench of Justice V Parthiban and Justice P D Audikesavalu after hearing 4 hours of arguments said they would pass a detailed order. The single judge had quashed the GOs identifying remote and difficult areas while allowing a batch of petitions filed by government doctors that alleged a that the classification was not made based on geographical parameters of areas, but other things like the number of vacancies and workload.

In its appeal, the state on the other hand in its writ had argued that an experts committee had been formed for identifying the areas and after considering all parameters identified certain areas as remote and difficult for awarding incentive marks.

The single judge had, however, failed to consider that the identification was made only on the basis of the expert committee recommendations and hence said the additional advocate, the order must have interfered with, reported TOI.

Opposing all the submissions, the original petitioner’s counsel argued that the committee had, in fact, failed to follow the apex court’s directions and had not considered the geographical parameters at all.