SC dismisses PG med students plea, HC to hear now

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court would hold the hearing in the petition filed against the Maharashtra government’s ordinance on postgraduate medical and dental admissions on Thursday after the Supreme Court dismissed two applications seeking clarification on the apex court’s June 4 order.
In the third application, the apex court recorded that no reserved category candidate shall be excluded if he is eligible to compete from open category.
The government had issued the ordinance on 16% SEBC, known as Maratha, quota to bypass SC and HC rulings which set aside the reservation in PG medical and dental admissions for this year.
On June 7, a group of PG medical aspirants from the city had approached SC challenging contents of its June 4 order by filing two separate applications.
The petitioners prayed for clarifying or modifying the June 4 order regarding Clause 9 stating that it shouldn’t come in the way of deciding plea (WP No 3771/2019) by the Nagpur bench of Bombay HC to be heard on Monday (June 10). The students were barred from making new preferences during seat allotments. In this petition before HC, the students have challenged the ordinance moved by state government to supersede HC and SC’s orders of quashing 16% SEBC quota in the medical seats.
They demanded that the outcome of HC plea should be decided on merit and shouldn’t be disposed of simply without any orders due to SC’s ruling of June 4.
On Monday, the petitioners informed the HC that two petitions regarding the admissions and quota were being heard in the SC which dismissed them later in the day. Hence, the HC kept the next hearing in the matter for Thursday.
In its verdict, the apex court, while cancelling EWS quota in PG seats, had directed to conduct fresh counselling for PG medical seats in the state for current academic year (2019-2020) by issuing fresh advertisements. It further clarified that the entire admissions process and counselling for the general category students will be conducted on the basis of merit as per revised NEET list.
The first application challenged the SC order where it had barred petitioners from changing their preference at the time of applying for seats.
The second application sought clarification on SC’s directives where it directed that no petition/application in respect of the admission for the current year shall be entertained by any court, as there is already delay in the entire process in Maharashtra. Both applications are written to the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the apex court.