NEET PG Counselling 2021 Starting Soon @ nbe.edu.in, Supreme Court Upholds EWS & OBC Reservation Criteria

In its interim order, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud has given its nod to NBE to commence the NEET PG Counselling 2021. Further, the bench has given nod to the existing reservation criteria of 27% for OBC and 10% for EWS categories. The criteria of the annual income of 8 lakh will also remain applicable for the academic year, said Supreme Court on Friday in its verdict.

The verdict was announced by the Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna on January 07. The bench had agreed that the pending NEET PG Counseling was a matter of concern, especially under the ongoing circumstances when the third wave of the COVID pandemic is on a surge. Justice DY Chandrshud pointed out that the situation necessitated quick action. He also laid out that the reservations were constitutionally valid. 

Advocating the recommendations, the bench said, “We accept the recommendation of the Pandey Committee to apply the criteria from next year. Counseling shall be conducted by giving effect to the reservation of the OM. Validity of the criteria by Pandey comm would prospectively be subject to the result of the petition in future.”

“In EWS, we've upheld the criteria so that the admissions are not dislocated for the current academic year,” added the Supreme Court bench.

The present EWS 10 percent criteria would be applicable for this Academic year. This, however, would be subject to the final hearing, which would be conducted in the third week of March. 

The plea was filed against the Central Government’s decision on introduction reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in All India Quota of postgraduate medical admissions. Due to the same, the counseling process was delayed for over 8 months.

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Meanwhile, the central government was seen defending its stand, it requested for the admissions to continue as per the previous mandate and offering to implement the changes from the next academic year.

Petitioners, on the other hand, had made their submissions, questioning the criterion of annual 8 lakh income for EWS. The matter now stands resolved for now.

NEET PG Exam 2021, earlier scheduled in April and May was postponed to September 2021 due to the pandemic. The exam was conducted on September 11, 2021, and the result was subsequently declared next month. However, the counseling process was put on hold which later moved to court. The delay further caused a worry among the NEET PG aspirants that resulted in Doctors' protests due to NEET PG Counselling crises.