Spelling big relief for doctors, the Supreme Court on Friday, in an interim order, has announced that it will allow NEET-PG Counselling for 2021-2022 based on existing EWS, OBC reservation. The Supreme Court said that it will allow 27% reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) and 10% for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category in the All-India Quota (AIQ) seats for admission in the NEET for all medical seats as existing criteria this year.
The apex court has listed petitions challenging ₹8 lakh income criteria for EWS on March 5 for final adjudication. “EWS criteria for academic year 2021-22 for NEET-PG will be as notified, and for future it will be subject to final adjudication,” Supreme Court said.
A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna said that detailed reasons for the interim order will follow and the counselling for the NEET-PG for the academic year 2021-22 will proceed as per the criteria already notified.
The bench said that validity of criteria of Rs 8 lakh for determination of EWS for future years will be subject to final adjudication of the batch of petitions and listed the pleas for final hearing on March 5.
Over the last several weeks, doctors have been protesting that they are overworked and overburdened due to counselling not taking place on time. The counselling is the last step before these students are admitted in medical colleges for further study and care work.
The petitions in the Supreme Court relate to challenges against the validity of the Union government’s decision to introduce OBC/EWS reservation in NEET-based admissions. In past hearings, the bench has raised doubts over the Union government’s Rs 8 lakh per annum income cut-off to qualify for EWS quota.
On October 25, the Union government had told the Supreme Court that NEET counselling would be on hold while the court adjudicated the matter. Last week, the Union government said after constituting a panel to look into the Rs 8 lakh cut-off, it has decided to stick by this number for this year. The Committee had said that while the criterion may be changed in the future, this year’s counselling should be allowed to proceed as planned.
