Supreme Court quashes in-service doctors marks weightage given by Rajasthan HC

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court Judgement granting marks weightage to in-service doctors for postgraduate course admissions for their postings in remote and difficult areas has been quashed by the Supreme Court. The reason given by the court for setting aside of the Rajasthan High Court order is that the incentive granted to in-service doctors under Regulation 9(IV) cannot be granted till the remote and difficult area criteria is identified and notified by the state government for all beneficial schemes, said Purvi Mathur the petitioner’s Counsel.

The bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Shantanu Goudar was responding to a petition by non-service doctors Dr. Shikka Sharma and Dr. Amit Bagra.

The April 7, 2017, judgment of the Rajasthan High Court had directed the state governments to grant incentive under Regulation 9(IV) of the Medical Council of India 2000 to in-service doctors, without notifying the remote and difficult areas reports TOI.

The high court order directed the government that while treating in-service doctors who are serving in hilly/desert/tribal areas as 'difficult areas' and other rural areas as 'remote areas' as identified by the state, the government is directed to grant them weightage of marks, assigned to in-service candidates, in the form of incentive, for determining their merit in NEET Examination, 2017. This was challenged in the apex court.

In an earlier story done by Medical Dialogues, the team reported that the High Court in its attempt to provide relief to in-service candidates had issued an order to the government to grant marks weight age to in-service candidates, as incentive for determining their merit in the NEET Examination,2017 in accordance with the terms of provisions accorded in the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulation 2000 regulation 9.

With the judgement, the court was seen quashing the Section 3 and 4 of the notification released by the state government on 24/03/2017, that called for reservation 50 % reservation in the state quota for students passing out of colleges affiliated to Rajasthan University/Rajasthan University of Health Sciences as well as provided blanket 10% bonus marks to in-service candidates. In particular the two quashed points of the order read as under

• 50% of total seats (degree/diploma), which come under, State Quota (i.e. 25% of total seats) will be only for the students who have received degree from Colleges affiliated to Rajasthan University of Health Sciences/Rajasthan University.


• For the purpose of equating the in-service candidates for the grant of benefits, as per the previous policies of the State the candidates who have worked for 2 or more years of regular service in Hilly/Desert/Tribal areas (difficult areas) and 3 or more years in other rural areas (remote areas), maximum of 10% of the marks obtained in the NEET as bonus marks as per the service actually rendered by the in-service candidate in the remote and/or difficult (rural) areas will be granted as an incentive

Read also: In-service doctors to be provided marks incentive as per MCI : HC to Rajasthan govt