The Supreme Court on Friday allowed resumption of the NEET-PG medical counselling process for admissions to 2021-22 academic session along with 27 per cent OBC and 10 per cent EWS quota.
The top court upheld the constitutional validity of the quotas for the NEET-UG and NEET-PG courses. However, SC stated that it would decide on the rationale of Rs 8 lakh income criteria for the EWS category in March-April next year.
A bench of justices AS Bopanna and DY Chandrachud said the validity of the EWS criteria will prospectively be subject to the top court's orders.
A doctors' federation recently moved the SC saying there is an urgent need to commence the NEET-PG counselling and that the revision of the OBC and EWS reservation criteria at the fag end of the process will lead to further delay in the final selection.
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In an application seeking impleadment in the pending petition, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) had said that every year approximately 45,000 candidates are selected as Post Graduate doctors through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Postgraduate).
But the process was halted in 2021 as the NEET-PG was delayed until the month of September due to the coronavirus pandemic, FORDA said.
The federation had submitted that as no junior doctors have been inducted this year, the second- and third-year PG doctors are handling the patients.
The plea contended that this has led to a situation where the doctors are working for more than 80 hours per week and several of them have now tested positive for COVID-19.
The Centre had told the apex court on Wednesday that it would not accept a position whereby those falling in the OBC or the EWS category, whether before or after the exercise of revisiting the criterion of Rs 8 lakh annual income, are deprived of something that is legitimately due to them.
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It had urged the court to let the stalled NEET-PG counselling be allowed to go on as the demand of resident doctors is genuine and the country needs new doctors, even when the matter of the validity of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota is under adjudication.
The NEET-PG candidates, who had challenged a July 29, 2021 notification for the implementation of the OBC and the EWS quotas from the 2021-22 academic year, opposed the government's justification of applying the Rs 8 lakh income criteria, saying no study has been conducted on it.
Large-scale protests were held by resident doctors of various hospitals under the banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country over the delay in the NEET-PG counselling, which has been postponed due to the pendency of the case and the Centre deciding to revisit the criterion for the determination of the EWS quota.