50 percent in-house quota: SC to pass order on BHU, AMU's plea

The Banaras Hindu University, the Aligarh Muslim University and the Medical Council of India today joined hands to challenge in the Supreme Court an Allahabad High Court order setting aside 50 per cent institutional preference in admission to PG medical seats.

A vacation bench of justices Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta, after hearing the arguments, reserved its verdict for tomorrow. During the brief submission, the two universities said that the high court verdict was violative of earlier apex court judgement and MCI regulations which allow institutes to take admissions on 50 per cent seats from their own institution.

Both these central universities got the support from the MCI, which argued that the high court has erred in interpreting the laid down regulations. Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh appearing for the BHU, sought immediate stay of the high court's May 29 order saying the "entire apple cart" cannot be reversed.

"The entire apple cart cannot be reversed by re-opening those 50 per cent seats for students selected through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)," he said. The ASG also relied upon the earlier apex court's verdict in the Saurabh Chaudhary case– laying down guidelines for PG admission– to contend that only 50 per cent seats were to be filled through an all-India quota.

Singh said that if the institutional preference for 50 per cent seats were done away with, what would happen to other premier institutes like the AIIMS and the PGI, Chandigarh. Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for the AMU, said some students have already been admitted by the varsities under the 50 per cent quota, therefore the high court verdict needs to be stayed.

Khurshid added that in the AMU, out of 195 seats for PG medical courses, admission on 149 were already done and everything cannot be reversed. The bench, while observing that the high court may have misinterpreted the rules, reserved its order for tomorrow.

On May 29, after hearing a PIL, the high court had passed order allowing to fill up the 50 per cent institutional quota seats in PG medical courses in these two central universities for students from any medical college based on their ranking in NEET.