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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of six states on allegations of usurping the post-graduate medical seats for all-India quota by not disclosing the vacant seats in their medical colleges.
A vacation bench of Justices H L Gokhale and Ranjana Prakash Desai issued notices to Delhi,Maharashtra,Rajasthan,Punjab,Uttar Pradesh and Haryana on a petition by Esha Karwase,a medical student.
Advocate Indu Malhotra,representing Karwase,submitted that non-disclosure of seats by these states would affect the interests of hundreds of medical students across the country.
All PG seats in medicine in all states,except Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh,are divided into two categories all-India quota and state quota.
While the all-India quota seats are unreserved and allotted only on merit basis through the all-India entrance examination for MD/MS/PG Diploma and MDS courses conducted by AIIMS,the state quota seats are allotted on the basis of a common entrance exam at local level,in which domiciled students can appear.
The all-India quota seats are filled by three rounds of counselling conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services. After the first round,the subsequent rounds are held for the all-India seats post successive counselling sessions by states. If the all-India quota is not filled,it would revert to the respective state.
The petition said that students appearing for the all-India quota invariably appear in the state entrance examinations of their respective domiciles,and vacate the all-India quota seat if they get a better seat in the state quota. It alleged malafide intention on part of some states for not completing their second round of counselling so that the vacant all-India quota seats get added to the state quota by default. This illegal,unconstitutional,arbitrary act of states has resulted in meritorious candidates like the petitioner to suffer and has dissipated the objective of resorting to the online counselling process, it said.
