Supreme Court says no to quota for in-service docs in super specialty medical courses for 2020-21

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Director General Health Services to go ahead with counselling for the admissions to PG super-speciality medical courses for the academic year 2020-21 without providing reservation for in-service candidates.

A bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao and comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi said: "We direct that the counselling for admission to Super Specialty Medical Courses for the academic year 2020-2021 shall proceed on a date to be fixed by the competent authority without providing for reservations to in-service doctors for the academic year 2020-2021."

The apex court stayed the directions of the Kerala High Court and the Tamil Nadu government to provide in-service quota in super specialty medical courses for admissions in 2020-21.

The bench noted that the process for admissions to super specialty medical courses started on August 3 this year and it was made clear to all the competing candidates that there shall be no reservation. "The government order issued by the State of Tamil Nadu on November 7, 2020 reserving 50 per cent seats for in-service doctors would be detrimental to the interests of the meritorious doctors as 50 per cent of the available seats in the State of Tamil Nadu in Super Specialty Medical Courses will not be available to them", said the top court.

The bench said there will be reduction of 50 per cent of seats in super specialty courses in Tamil Nadu if the Government Order is carried out, which is detrimental to their chances of admission. "Admittedly no reservation for in-service Doctors was implemented since 2016. As the admission process is at the final stages, we cannot permit reservation for in-service Doctors for this year", added the top court.

The top court noted the Kerala government contention that the information bulletin for the entrance examination for admission to super specialty medical courses has already been issued in which no reservation has been provided for in-service candidates, it is practically impossible to introduce any new reservation norms for the current academic year i.e. 2020-2021.

"It was made clear in point 5.16 of the bulletin (information bulletin for NEET-SS 2020) that there shall be no reservations of seats for Super Specialty DM/MCH Courses. The Medical Counselling Committee issued the counselling scheme for 100 per cent All India Quota for NEET Super Specialty DM/MCH DMB 2020-2021 in which it was made clear that there shall be no reservation for Super Specialty Medical Courses", noted the top court.