The Supreme Court of India has rejected the plea seeking 50% reservation for OBCs under the All India Quota in medical seats in the state for undergraduate, postgraduate and dental courses for the academic year 2020-2021.
The Tamil Nadu government had challenged the Madras High Court judgement which scrapped OBC reservation under All India Quota (AIQ) in non-central institutes.
The High Court had said that there is no direct rule which stated that the OBC reservation should be implemented in state surrendered AIQ seats of the UG/PG medical courses in the state-run medical colleges within Tamil Nadu, subject to any further directions or orders of the apex court.
It had disagreed with the contention of the Medical Council of India that permitting reservation in AIQ seats would compromise merit and said that the argument gets diluted as NEET examinations are now clearly designed to allow only such candidates to be admitted, who secure a minimum merit.
The petition at the Supreme Court had been filed by the Tamil Nadu government led by AIADMK along with other regional parties.
An apex court bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi rejected the petition, since the COVID pandemic has caused the current academic year to be pushed to a great extent.
The panel argued that the OBC community has been compensated under various provisions in the constitution. However, political parties in Tamil Nadu claim that over 10,000 students have been affected in the State in view of the 50 per cent OBC reservation not being implemented in the State.
As per a legislation passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 1994, 26.5% of seats in educational institutions is reserved for Backward Classes, 3.5% for Backward Muslim castes, 20% for OBCs defined as Most Backward Castes, 15% to Scheduled Castes, 3% to a sub-community of Scheduled Castes and 1% to Scheduled Tribes.