New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed resumption of NEET-PG medical counselling process for admissions to 2021-22 academic sessions with 27% OBC and 10% economically weaker sections (EWS) quota, as per existing criteria. The apex court upheld the constitutional validity of the quotas for the NEET-UG and NEET-PG but said it would adjudicate the rationale of R 8 lakh income criteria for the EWS category in March-April this year.
The Centre had earlier promised that EWS criteria would be tweaked from next year as per the recommendation of the Ajay Bhushan Pandey committee. The Centre had told the apex court on Wednesday that it would not accept a position whereby those falling in the OBC or the EWS category, whether before or after the exercise of revisiting the criterion of R 8 lakh annual income are deprived of something that is legitimately due to them.
The NEET-PG candidates, who have challenged a July 29th, 2021 notification for the implementation of the OBC and the EWS quotas from the 2021-22 academic year, opposed the government’s justification of applying the Rs 8 lakh income criterion, saying no study has been conducted on it.
Large-scale protests were held by resident doctors of various hospitals under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country over the delay in the NEET-PG counselling, which has been postponed due to the pendency of the case and the Centre deciding to revisit the criterion for the determination of the EWS quota.