SC allows NEET-PG medical counselling with 27% quota for OBCs, 10% for EWS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed resumption of NEET-PG and NEET-UG counseling process for admissions to All India Quota medical seats for 2021-22 academic session with 27% OBC and 10% EWS quota. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna said it upheld the constitutional validity of 27% OBC quota in All India quota MBBS and MD courses in All India Quota seats but said it would adjudicate the rationale behind Rs 8 lakh annual income criteria for identification of EWS candidates in third week of March.

The bench said, “We accept the recommendations of the (Ajay Bhushan) Pandey Committee that the EWS criteria, as notified in 2019, should be used for admissions to NEET-PG for the academic session 2021-22.”

SC said the counseling for NEET-UG and NEET-PG shall be conducted as per the government notification of July 29, 2021, which stipulates 27% OBC and 10% EWS quotas in the All India Quota medical seats.

 

Justices Chandrachud and Bopanna said the criteria for determination of EWS category, as notified in January 2019, shall be used for identifying candidates who had appeared for NEET-UG and NEET-PG for academic session 2021-22.

It said validity of the EWS criteria, determined by the Pandey Committee, would prospectively for the future be subject to the final result of the petitions in the court challenging the criteria for such identification. SC said it would hear the petitions in the 3rd week of March.