NEET PG 2022: The Supreme Court today, July 27 posted the petitions challenging the 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in government colleges for admissions through NEET-PG 2022 for August 2. The petitions were listed before the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant.
The Supreme Court had asked the government to explain why the EWS parameters were defined at the same margin as the creamy layer of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), at an annual family income of not more than Rs 8 lakh. The NEET PG applicants filed the plea last year, seeking the EWS reservation in the All India Quota (AIQ) for NEET PG counseling. The students who are dissatisfied claim that the action is unfair to “meritorious” students.
The Centre has appointed a three-member committee to review the criteria, which comprised former finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, ICSSR member secretary VK Malhotra, and Sanjeev Sanyal, the Centre's Principal Economic Adviser. The committee suggested in its report that the existing limit of Rs 8 lakh in family income to qualify for the EWS reservation benefit be maintained, calling it "reasonable for the purpose."
The case has been in court for about a year. The top court maintained the constitutional validity of the quota for the OBC and EWS categories in the NEET PG counselling during the hearing in January 2022, following fervent protests from NEET PG candidates who were left waiting for the NEET PG 2021 counselling to commence. However, no final judgement was rendered on the matter.
