More Delay in MBBS Counselling in Punjab: Supreme Court stays HC order in Micro Reservation

Chandigarh: In its recent verdict, the Supreme Court has stayed the Punjab and Haryana's High Court order on providing 1 per cent micro reservation to private medical and dental institutes running in the Punjab state.

With the matter now being adjourned to August 23 by the apex court, the MBBS and BDS counselling process which has been on hold for more than a month due to petitions filed in court; is going to be delayed. While other states have already started their academic session for this year, the first counselling session hasn't even commenced in Punjab.

As per the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines, the admission process is required to be completed by August 30.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that there is severe confusion over the MBBS and BDS admissions due to legal tangles which raged over the reservation of seats, including one relating to micro reservation quota.

On July 26, the Punjab and Haryana high court held that mi­cro reser­va­tion of 1% in MBBS and BDS cour­ses for chil­dren/grand­chil­dren of ter­ror-af­fected per­sons/anti-Sikh ri­ots-af­fected per­sons would be ap­pli­ca­ble to the state quota as well as the man­age­ment quota in all pri­vate un­aided non-mi­nor­ity med­i­cal/den­tal in­sti­tu­tions.

Read Also: Punjab extends MBBS reservation for sportspersons, wards of 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims in Private Medical Colleges

The court also held that un­der sports quota in govern­ment col­leges, the reser­va­tion would be 3% and not 1% as no­ti­fied by the govern­ment.

After NEET 2019 results were declared, the Medical Education Department on June 6 had released an official notification based on which, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) had asked the MBBS and BDS aspirants to give their preference by June 25.

The date was extended to July 5. The result of the first round of counselling was to be declared on July 8 and candidates were to join the allotted colleges by July 12.

Again on July 4, the fresh schedule of the Round 1 counselling was released, inviting candidates to give preference by July 8 and selected candidates were to join allotted institutes by July 15. There was another extension on July 9 and July 11, informing the concerned aspirants about the counselling on hold till further orders.

Further, on July 15, a public notice was issued which announced that the counselling process is kept in abeyance till July 19 on the directions of the state Medical Education Department.

Then the high court issued orders on micro reservation. Accordingly, directions were given to the Medical Education Department to issue a fresh notification on the same. On the other hand, on August 9, the Punjab government filed a special leave petition in Supreme Court challenging the HC order.

Read Also: Reservation Woes: MBBS Aspirants in Punjab Struggle as counselling getting delayed

Now, in response, the apex court has put a stay on the Punjab and Haryana High Court order.

Informing about the same, the state government counsel told HT, "After observing the facts and documents, the high court order on 1% micro-reservation in private medical colleges was put on stay by the court and matter has been listed for further hearing."

Meanwhile, the Principal Secretary at Medical Education and Research has assured that the admissions process will be completed before the MCI deadline.

The eight medical colleges in the state offer 1,225 MBBS seats — 600 in three government medical colleges and 625 in five self-financing institutions. There are 1,230 BDS seats in 15 dental colleges.