New Delhi: The Centre on Monday pleaded before the Supreme Court not to make absolute its interim order directing 10 per cent reservation of seats for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe candidates in postgraduate medical admissions for the academic year 2006-2007.

Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam told a three-judge Bench of Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice D.K. Jain that enforcing the 10 per cent order for this year would create practical difficulties. This year it should be free of reservation for SC/STs under the 50 per cent all-India quota, he said.

The Bench had passed the interim order last week on a writ petition filed by a batch of 14 doctors challenging the method of calculation of reserved seats in courses for which counselling is now taking place.

When the matter was taken up again on Monday, Mr. Subramaniam said that as per the earlier apex court judgment the 50 per cent all-India quota was exclusive of reservation. Reservation was contemplated only under the 50 per cent State quota. As a result there was no mention in the prospectus about reservation in the 50 per cent all-India quota. He said that was why many SC/ST students had not taken the test for the all-India quota.

He said that the interim order to provide 10 per cent seats for SC/STs would open the floodgates for filing applications from other students who would question why the reservation not contemplated in the prospectus was being implemented all of a sudden. He said it would not be proper to implement what was not stipulated or contemplated in the prospectus.

At the same time, he said the Centre was conscious of the Constitutional entitlement of SCs/STs and the Government was in the process of consulting the States and would come out with a national policy on reservation in three months. Till then the interim order should be kept in abeyance, he said.

The petitioners contended that as per the apex court judgment 50 per cent of the postgraduate medical seats were reserved for the all-India quota and 50 per cent for the State quota. The 50 per cent all-India quota would be calculated after deducting the number of seats for the reserved categories.

Considering the plight of such students, the Bench, while posting the matter for further hearing on May 5, asked Mr. Subramaniam to explore whether the 10 per cent order could be given effect to for this year itself. He assured the court that he would discuss it with the Government. Since the first counselling was to end on May 4, he said he would ask the Government to keep the 10 per cent seats vacant.

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