The Supreme Court today allowed admission to NEET-PG with a 27 per cent quota for OBCs and 10 per cent for economically weaker sections for the 2021-22 academic session. The court also accepted the recommendations of the Ajay Bhushan Pandey committee to stick to Rs 8-lakh income criteria for identifying Economically Weaker Sections for this admission cycle. The top court, however, said that the final verdict on the Rs 8 lakh income criteria will be pronounced on March 5.
“The EWS criteria for the academic year 2021-22 for NEET-PG will be as notified, and for future, it will be subject to final adjudication,” said the court.
A two-judge bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna had concluded the hearing in the matter yesterday. Counselling for the NEET-PG admissions was suspended due to the matter being sub-judice.
Secretary ICSSR V K Malhotra and Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal were part of the Pandey Committee which was set up to analyse the feasibility of the Rs 8 lakh income criteria. The top court in previous hearings had sought to know the basis on which the income criteria was decided. The committee had recommended retaining the Rs 8 lakh limit for NEET-PG (AIQ) for the current admission cycle and to adopt recommendations on how to apply the income limit from the next admission cycle.
Yesterday, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the introduction of OBC and EWS reservations after the issuance of NEET-PG exam notification does not amount to changing the rules of the game midway. Justifying the application of Rs 8 lakh income criteria for the EWS category, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said the decision was arrived at after due deliberation by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Appearing for some of the candidates, senior advocate Arvind Datar had said that if the apex court intends to allow EWS reservation in NEET-AIQ this year, it should be based on Rs 2.5 lakh annual income criteria as recommended by Major Gen (retd) SR Sinho commission and not the Rs 8 lakh gross annual income limit fixed by the Centre.
from The Financial Express https://ift.tt/3qXg4VS
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