Are Quotas Crowding Out Merit Candidates?

On July 29, the Union government issued a notification introducing two new reservations for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses, beginning this academic year.

- Kaushik Deka

Of the seats under All India Quota (AIQ), 10 per cent will be reserved for EWS (economically weaker section) candidates and 27 per cent for OBC (other backward classes) candidates. AIQ seats were introduced in 1986 under the direction of the Supreme Court to provide domicile-free, merit-based opportunities to students from any state to study in good medical colleges in other states. As a result of the notification, 2,500 seats in postgraduate (PG) courses in medical colleges will go to OBC candidates, with 1,000 for EWS candidates.

However, admissions to PG courses this year, which were supposed to start on October 25, remain stalled as the government’s notification has been challenged in the Supreme Court by more than 40 doctors aspiring to earn a post-graduate degree. The annual income limit of Rs 8 lakh fixed by the Centre to determine EWS status is one of the points on which the petitioners have challenged the Centre’s July 29 order. With the Supreme Court also questioning the rationale of the income ceiling, the Centre has now offered assurances that it will not proceed with the admission process until the legal challenge has been settled.