PG medical, dental courses won’t have Maratha quota this year, says Bombay HC

The court said the quota will apply to courses whose admission process started on or will start after November 30, 2018.

The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday ruled that the newly-introduced socially and economically backward castes (SEBC) quota for Marathas won’t be applicable to post-graduate (PG) medical and dental courses in the state for the academic year of 2019-20. In its verdict, the court also rendered the government’s distribution of seats in medical and dental colleges to various caste groups to be illegal, even though the first round of admissions is already over.

The Nagpur bench of the court also terms the government’s distribution of seats illegal. (Representational photo)

The division bench of justices Sunil Shukre and Pushpa Ganediwala ruled that the state government’s March 8 notification pertaining to SEBC quota in health science courses won’t apply to PG dental and medical admissions as the registration process for their respective National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Tests (NEET) had begun on October 16 and November 2, 2018, respectively. The law to introduce 16% SEBC reservation was enacted on November 30 last year. The court said the quota will apply to courses whose admission process started on or will start after November 30, 2018.

The court was hearing three petitions challenging the implementation of the SEBC quota in PG medical and dental courses. “The SEBC Act makes it clear that its provisions won’t be applicable if the admission process was already underway before the act came into effect, including the courses for which admission is conducted through entrance tests. It’s inappropriate to include the quota in PG medical and dental admissions,” said Ashwin Deshpande, counsel to the petitioners.

The petitioners also argued that the government’s decision to calculate the 16% quota for socially and economically backward classes on all seats of private colleges – including 35% institute and 15% non-resident Indian (NRI) quota seats – while calculating the other reservations on the 50% seats ‘available’ after removing the institute and NRI quotas, is discriminatory.

The court decided that the seat matrix issued by the government won’t be applicable in the current admission process. “The respondents, however, would conduct the admission process and complete it in accordance with applicable law, rules and orders in force before the commencement of the SEBC Act, 2018,” read the judgement. There are around 1,221 and 241 PG medical and dental seats available, respectively, under the state quota in private as well as government and civic-run institutes. This year saw fewer applicants for PG medical and dental courses than last year. The common entrance test cell got 4,166 applications for centralised admission process (CAP) for the state quota of PG medical courses, compared to 6,122 last year. Also, 1,190 have applied for PG dental courses, compared to 1,613 last year. Experts say the new bond service rule and confusion over the reservations for Marathas and economically weaker sections (EWS) may have led to the dip.

Maratha activists who had advocated for the quota are upset with the court’s decision. “This is a kind of deliberate injustice to Maratha SEBC candidates,” said Balasaheb Sarate, who had filed a petition in HC favouring reservation for Marathas.