New Delhi [India], June 10 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Friday observed that if one additional Special Stray Round of counselling is conducted now, as prayed, that case, it may affect the admission process for NEET-PG-2022 and remarked that the decision of the Union Government and the Medical Counselling Committee not to have Special Stray Round of counselling is in the interest of medical education and public health.

New Delhi [India], June 6 (ANI): A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, seeking to direct Respondent Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to conduct a Special Stray Round of counselling to allow the candidates to participate for the vacant seats which are available after the conduct of stray vacancy round of All India Quota (AIQ).

New Delhi Mar 31 PTI The Supreme Court on Thursday cancelled the All India Quota mop-up round counselling for NEET-PG 2021-22 admissions to resolve the anomalies over 146 fresh seats which were not available for candidates who participated in round one and two of the process A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud Surya Kant and Bela M Trivedi directed holding of a special round of counselling for 146 fresh seats and allowed the students who have joined the All India Quota AIQ or state quota in round two to participate in it The bench directed the Director General of Health Services DGHS to invite options from students within 24 hours and complete the process within 72 hours after the cut-off time for the options The bench clarified that all the directions have been issued in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution At the outset additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Centre said that DGHS has decided to drop the 146 fresh seats which were added for the first time in the mop-up roundOn the advisory of March 16 Bhati said that it is in tune with the earlier verdict of the top court but the problem was that many states had not informed the Centre on time about the number of students who had taken admission under State quotaThe suggestion of dropping the seats did not go well with the court as the bench said You can very well have an additional round for filling of 146 seats and we will have 146 more doctors You dont have to drop the seatsit is a criminal way to drop the seatsThe bench said that DGHS may hold a fresh round of counselling for 146 seats after asking for options from the students within 24 hour and complete the process within one weekWe will uphold the advisory of March 16 that students who had participated in round two of the counselling for state quota will not participate in the mop-up of the All India Quota the bench saidAdvocate Shivendra Singh appearing for some of the doctors said that the March 16 advisory is against the scheme contemplated in the earlier verdict of the top court and it is like changing the rules in between as students were given to believe that those who have taken state quota will be eligible to participate in the mop-up round of AIQThe bench said that although Singh has been persuasive it cannot grant relief to his clients as not everyone can be pleasedBhati suggested to the court that if the it is allowing the students who participated in round two of AIQ to participate for 146 seats then students from state quota could also be allowed to ensure parityShe said that option be confined to round two only as the seats are always added in that round and it has not been problematic as round one candidates get free exit as an optionOn Wednesday the top court had directed the Centre to maintain status quo till Thursday in the mop-up round of NEET-PG 2021-22 counselling and asked the Director General of Health Services DGHS to reconsider issues including the decision of adding 146 new seatsThe apex court had observed that these 146 seats were not available to the candidates in the previous rounds of counselling and they had no opportunity to participate in these seatsIt had said that these 146 seats have been allocated to students who are lower in merit than those who were allotted seats in the rounds one and two of the counsellingThe top court is hearing petitions filed by a group of doctors seeking to participate in the mop-up round of NEET-PG 2021-22 counsellingOne group of petitions filed through advocate Tanvi Dubey said that the doctors who had appeared in NEET-PG and participated in round one of the counselling and had joined were not provided upgrade in round twoAnother group of petitions challenged the March 16 advisory of the Medical Counselling Committee which restricts the candidate from participating in mop-up round if has chosen a seat in State quotaOn March 28 the apex court had asked the DGHS to respond to a batch of petitions filed by a group of doctors seeking to participate in the mop-up round of NEET-PG 2021-22 counsellingSenior advocate Gopal Sankaranaryanan appearing for some of the petitioners had said that notices have been issued by the DGHS bringing in new seats which were not available to them and now students who were below in merit will be getting better seats PTI MNL SA

New Delhi [India], January 20 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday said that merit should be socially contextualized and reconceptualized as an instrument that advances social goods that society values like equality.

New Delhi Jan 20 PTI Merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunity the Supreme Court said on Thursday as it upheld 27 per cent Other Backward Classes OBC reservation in All India Quota AIQ seats in the NEET for UG and PG medical coursesJustifying allowing quota for Economically Weaker Sections EWS on existing quota for the current academic year the bench said We are still in the midst of the pandemic and any delay in the recruitment of doctors would impact the ability to manage the pandemic Hence it is necessary to avoid any further delays in the admission process and allow counselling to begin immediatelyThe top court said that Articles 16 4 15 4 and 15 5 of the constitution employ group identification as a method through which substantive equality can be achieved and does not change the underlying rationale of the reservation policy that seeks to remedy the structural barriers that disadvantaged groups face in advancing in societyReservation is one of the measures that is employed to overcome these barriers The individual difference may be a result of privilege fortune or circumstances but it cannot be used to negate the role of reservation in remedying the structural disadvantage that certain groups suffer it added A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna passed an order detailing reasons for upholding the 27 per cent OBC reservation and allowing a 10 per cent EWS quota on existing criteria for NEET-UG and PG this academic year In view of the discussion above we hold that the reservation for OBC candidates in the AIQ seats for UG and PG medical and dental courses is constitutionally valid the bench said It said that the information bulletin of the NEET-2021 exams specifies that the reservation applicable to NEET-PG would be notified by the counselling authority before the beginning of the counselling process Therefore the candidates while applying for NEET-PG are not provided any information on the distribution of seat matrix Such information is provided by the counselling authority only before the counselling session is to begins It thus cannot be argued that the rules of the game were set when the registration for the examination closed the bench said It held The challenge to the constitutional validity of OBC reservation in AIQ seats introduced through the notice dated July 29 2021 is rejected in view of the discussion Dealing with the issue of the validity of OBC quota the bench said Merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunity Competitive examinations assess basic current competency to allocate educational resources but are not reflective of excellence capabilities and potential of an individual which are also shaped by lived experiences subsequent training and individual characterThe bench said that the Centre was not required to seek the permission of this Court before providing reservation in AIQ seats and therefore providing reservation in the AIQ seats is a policy decision which will be subject to the contours of judicial review similar to every reservation policyThe top court said that crucially open competitive examinations do not reflect the social economic and cultural advantage that accrues to certain classes and contributes to their success in such examinationsHigh scores in an examination are not a proxy for merit Merit should be socially contextualized and re-conceptualized as an instrument that advances social goods like equality that we as a society value In such a context reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers its distributive consequences the bench saidIt said that the binary of merit and reservation has now become superfluous once this Court has recognized the principle of substantive equality as the mandate of Article 14 and as a facet of Articles 15 1 and 161 of the Constitution Justice Chandrachud who penned down a 106-page verdict said that the exclusionary standard of merit serves to denigrate the dignity of those who face barriers in their advancement which are not of their own making On the EWS quota the top court said that it is a settled principle of law that in matters involving a challenge to the constitutionality of legislation or a rule the Court must be wary to pass an interim order unless the Court is convinced that the rules are prima facie arbitrary it added The bench said as a result we allow the implementation of EWS reservation in AIQ seats in NEET UG and PG seats for the academic year of 2021-2022 The EWS category shall be identified in view of the criteria in Office Memorandum of 2019 On January 7 the top court had paved the way for starting the stalled NEET-PG 2021 counselling process based on the existing 27 per cent OBC and 10 per cent EWS reservations in the All India Quota seats saying there is an urgent need to begin the admission process The Centre had constituted a three-member committee comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey former finance secretary VK Malhotra member secretary ICSSR and Sanjeev Sanyal Principal Economic Adviser to Centre to revisit the criteria for determining EWS It had decided to accept the recommendations of the panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for defining EWS at Rs 8 lakh or lessPTI MNL MNL RKS RKS

New Delhi [India], January 20 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Thursday said that merit cannot be reduced to the definition of performance in open competitive examination and merit should be socially contextualised.

New Delhi [India], January 12 (ANI): The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) on Wednesday requested to Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) to take necessary measures for the commencement of NEET-UG Counselling 2021.

New Delhi [India], October 25 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to put on hold the counselling for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG until it decides the validity of the Centre's decision to introduce OBC and EWS reservation in All India Quota (AIQ).