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SC clears all-India quota for medical admissions

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI July 24. The Supreme Court today stayed a law enacted by the Maharashtra Government withdrawing the State's share of seats from the all-India quota and thus, permitted the completion of admission to the 15 per cent seats for MBBS and BDS courses in all Government colleges for the current academic year in various States.

A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, observed that the Maharashtra legislation unilaterally withdrawing its seats from the all-India quota appeared to be arbitrary, and directed the authorities to complete the counselling process for admissions into the pool seats. The Bench, which also included Justice S.N. Variava, Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice S.B. Sinha, observed that the all-India quota scheme was framed by the apex court taking into consideration all aspects. If Maharashtra had any difficulty in implementing the scheme framed 17 years ago, it should have approached the apex court rather than unilaterally withdrawing its contributions from the pool, the Bench said.

It was contended on behalf of Maharashtra that after the 11-judge Bench judgment in the T.M.A. Pai case on private unaided colleges there had been a severe shortage of seats for its students in medical colleges. As a result it had to withdraw its contribution of 273 seats to the all-India quota so as to provide better opportunity to its students.

Earlier, the Maharashtra Government as well as the Directorate-General of Health Services had agreed to freeze the admission process for the all India quota seats. And now decks have been cleared for admission under this quota.

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