NEET-PG Admissions: Centre Urges SC To Urgently Schedule EWS Quota Hearing

Citing "some urgency" the Centre urged on Tuesday to the Supreme Court to schedule a hearing of EWS quota matter related to NEET-PG admissions.

Supreme Court of India | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: The Central Govt has requested the  Supreme Court to urgently hear the case relating to reservation of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in NEET admissions for Post Graduate medical courses. 

Citing "some urgency" the Centre urged on Tuesday to the Supreme Court to schedule a hearing of EWS quota matter related to NEET-PG admissions.

Responding to the Centre’s request, Justice DY Chandrachud said that he would consult CJI NV Ramana for hearing the case either tomorrow or the day after. The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said that the EWS quota issue was a three-judge matter and he would request CJI NV Ramana for a listing of the case. 

"The moment today's work gets over, I would make a request to CJI NV Ramana for the listing of the case," Justice Chandrachud said, according to a PTI report.

The matter at present is listed for hearing on January 6.

On Sunday, the Central government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that it accepted the recommendation of a three-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit of Rs 8 lakh or less for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) candidates in NEET-PG admissions.

R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre told the top court, "I respectfully submit that the central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively" 

A committee was constituted by the government on November 30 last year to assure the top court that it would revisit the criteria for determining the Economically Weaker Sections. The committee consisted of former finance secretary Ajay Bhushan, ICSSR member secretary VK Malhotra and Principal Economic Advisor to Centre Sanjeev Sanyal. Large-scale protests have been 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 a delay in the NEET-PG counselling, which has been postponed due to the Centre deciding to revisit the criteria for the determination of the EWS quota.