The Hindu : Front Page : Court clears all-India SC/ST quota in PG medicine

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 01, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Court clears all-India SC/ST quota in PG medicine

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday approved the Centre's proposal to provide 22.5 per cent reservation for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe candidates under the all-India quota in postgraduate admissions to government medical colleges for 2007-08.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice D.K. Jain gave the nod after hearing Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Centre, and counsel for other parties, which also gave consent for the proposal.

For 2006-2007, the Centre did not provide for SC/ST reservation under the 50 per cent all-India quota following a 2005 judgment, which said it should be exclusive of reservation. As a result, reservation was provided only under the State quota.

Constitutional obligations

However in May 2006 the court clarified that its judgment did not take away the constitutional reservation. At that time, the Centre assured the court that it was conscious of its constitutional obligations to provide reservation for the SC/ST under the all-India quota.

The Centre decided to provide 15 per cent reservation for the SCs and 7.5 per cent for the STs under the all-India quota.

It sought permission to implement the proposal for the academic year 2007-2008, considering that the prospectus was already issued providing for such a quota with court approval.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section