Supreme Court notice to Union Health Secy, AP, Telangana Govts over PG Medical Admissions

New Delhi: After being accused of displaying ignorance to OBC reservation in the medical admissions process, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are now have been accused of misinterpreting stipulated sliding rules at the time of allotting PG medical seats.

The allegations surfaced via a PIL (Public Interest Litigation), in response to which the Supreme Court has recently issued notices to the Central government authority, Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana governments directing them to file their stands on the accusations of misinterpreting sliding rules while filling up Post-Graduate (PG) medical seats.

The PIL was filed by Justice V Eswaraiah, Chairman of National Backward Classes Federation, also a former chairman of the National BC Commission.

Earlier, the apex court bench of honourable Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notices to the Union Secretaries of Health, Higher Education, Social Justice, the Directorate General of Health Sciences that governs NEET, the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana; seeking their stand on the PIL accusing them of ignoring OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservation in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, NEET.

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Over a week ago, Medical Dialogues had reported about the PIL through which Justice Eswaraiah alleged that the AP and Telangana government are displaying ignorance on the OBC reservation in the states' medical admissions process. The petitioner had urged the SC to ensure the implementation of 27% quota for OBC candidates in the national pool MBBS, BDS and PG medical admissions.

Justice Eswaraiah had pointed out that SC/ST reservation is being implemented as per the stipulated rules, but OBC reservation is not being taken into account at all.

For MBBS and BDS, 15 % of the total seats available in the country are put in the national pool by the respective state governments. For PG medical seats and certain PG diploma courses, the national pool was raised to 50 per cent.

He brought the court's attention to the loss of OBC seats sustained last year. In 2018-19 alone OBC have lost 1028 MBBS, BDS seats and 1911 PG medicine seats due to non-implementation of OBC reservations in the national pool.

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During the recent hearing on the case, Justice Eswaraiah stated, "Both the laws and the GOs that were brought in to implement them were saying that whenever a BC candidate secures a seat under open category by virtue of his high marks, he should be treated as an open candidate and not as a reserved candidate."

Explaining the sliding process and its misinterpretation by the concerned states during the PG medical admissions for Backward Class (BC) candidates, the petitioner stated, "In the online admissions process, all meritorious candidates have got the facility of choosing their choice of speciality irrespective of the speciality subject seat he or she was initially allotted. This is called sliding. But when a BC merit candidate slides for a different speciality subject of his choice, the officials are vacating a seat meant for BCs and allotting such seats to the BC merit candidates. As a result of this, the seats meant for BCs are being reduced and open merit BC candidates are being shown in the reserved BC category. As 27 percent seats are to be filled by OBCs, the officials are supposed to keep the BC quota intact regardless of these slidings."

"But in reality, this sliding method is being implemented in a faulty manner that is detrimental to the interests of BCs," he said.

He once again brought to the notice of the SC the way in which the MBBS admissions were made by Dr NTR University of Health Sciences in AP and Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) in Telangana in 2018 that did gross injustice to more than 1000 BC candidates in both states. "Even SC found fault with the methods adopted by the authorities," he added.

Justice Eswaraiah urged the bench to direct the authorities to keep BC quota intact and not reduce it by misinterpreting the sliding rules.

Taking consideration of the PIL, the SC has issued notices to Telangana and AP government, health universities in the two states, Union Health Secretary and the Directorate General of Health Services, asking them to explain their stand on the PIL, reports TOI.

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