Supreme Court has said that admission process for PG Medical and Dental courses in Maharashtra started long before the 10 per cent EWS quota came into force. Hence, the quota will not apply to students taking admission in the 2019-20 academic session. A vacation bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose noted that admission process for PG medical courses started in November 2018 while the 103 Constitutional amendment granting 10 per cent EWS quota was passed in January this year and the Maharashtra Government passed enforced the quota for PG Medical courses in March.
"Ten per cent EWS quota cannot be granted to the ongoing admission process. You cannot change the rules of game when the game is on," the bench said.
The court said that 10 per cent EWS quota can not be granted at the cost of others unless MCI creates additional seats to accommodate the students seeking admission under the newly introduced quota.
"At this stage the State can act under the enabling provisions and introduce reservation but unless additional seats are created by Medical Council of India (MCI), the existing seats cannot be subjected to the EWS reservation amendment," the court said.
At least 25 candidates who were admitted under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category would be affected with this decision.
The Apex Court, on Monday, had asked state government to apprise it of the status of admissions in PG medical and dental courses under 10 per cent quota for students belonging to economically weaker sections (EWS) across all classes. The bench had asked the Advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar, appearing for the state, to file an affidavit before the court giving the current status.
Advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar had told the bench that the state has given benefit of 10 per cent reservation and seats under the EWS quota were already filled up for this academic year.
The court's order came after a plea was filed by a student from General Category saying that unless additional seats are created, the ten per cent EWS quota will affect their share of seats. The student, Rajat Rajendra Agrawal, had challenged two circulars of the Maharashtra government which enforced ten per cent EWS quota in PG medical courses of the state.
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