Competitive exams do not reflect the economic and social benefits that only certain sections accrue, said Supreme Court in its detailed verdict on OBC, EWS reservations in NEET counselling. Even as the court had asked authorities to start the counselling process ‘in national interest’ it had not released the detailed verdict sharing reasons behind its decision. The Supreme Court has issued its detailed order in the matter today.
The court further observed that while high marks is not the only criterion for eligibility, social and economic background also needs to be made relevant in relation to eligibility. Along with this, the court has accepted the importance of reservation in removing backwardness. At the same time, the court did not believe in the previous decisions that reservation is not allowed in All India Quota.
Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of providing a 27 per cent quota to OBC in All India Quota (AIQ) seats in NEET counselling for medical admissions. The Supreme Court (SC) said that “reservation is not at odds with merit”. In its order, the SC also said that ‘merit’ cannot be narrowed to the limit of success in competitive examinations and extends to “lived experiences”.
The apex court had announced its verdict to resume the NEET counselling process for both UG and PG courses with a newly introduced quota for EWS and OBC candidates, however, at that time SC had did not yet give a verdict on the rationale behind keeping Rs 8 lakh as the limit for EWS quota.
Giving a nod to NEET counselling in ‘national interest’, the SC had said, “final hearing on the validity of EWS criteria as recommended by Pandey Committee in the third week of March 2022”.
The quota for OBC candidates was announced after a long-pending demand. The NEET counselling for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses had reserved seats for SC, ST, and PwD students but not for those hailing from OBC backgrounds.
After the implementation of the OBC reservation, the All India OBC Students Association (AIOBCSA) had written a letter to PM Modi thanking him for the new reservation and also demanded proper implementation of the OBC quota in law colleges.
While announcing the new reservation policy, PM Modi had said, “This will immensely help thousands of our youth every year get better opportunities and create a new paradigm of social justice in our country.”
“Without reducing the number of seats available for the unreserved category, this step will benefit more than 5500 students from the backward & economically weaker sections,” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said.
This decision is expected to benefit every year nearly 1500 OBC students in MBBS and 2500 OBC students in postgraduation and also around 550 EWS students in MBBS and around 1000 EWS students in postgraduation, govt had said.
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