SC to consider plea on 50% quota for OBCs in medical courses on July 13

The Supreme Court on Thursday deferred to July 13 its hearing on a plea for implementing 50% reservation for OBCs in all-India quota seats in medical courses in Tamil Nadu.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat sought to know if the petition filed by Tamil Nadu had any similarity with a pending matter filed by Saloni Kumari in the apex court.

Senior advocates P Wilson and V Giri, among others, appeared for the matter.

The Tamil Nadu government moved the top court against the Madras HC's order declining issuing an order to the Centre to implement 50% reservation for OBCs in all-India quota seats for medical courses in the state.

The High Court had, on June 22, allowed a plea by the Centre, the Medical Council of India and others to keep the petition filed by the state in abeyance since a similar plea was coming up for consideration before the top court.

The state government contended that the High Court's decision was tantamount to denying relief as time for filling up the seats was running out.

It asked the top court to direct the Centre to provide 50% reservation for backward classes in admission to the seats shared by it in the all-India quota for undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses in academic year 2020-21, subject to the outcome of the matter.

Besides Tamil Nadu's plea, another petition by T G Babu also came up for consideration on Thursday.

According to the Medical Council of India’s Regulations, 1997, 15% of seats in all undergraduate medical colleges and 50% in all postgraduate medical colleges are surrendered to the all-India quota.

The Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of appointments or posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993, provided for 50% reservation for OBCs, besides 18% for SCs and 1% for STs.

On June 11, the top court had declined to consider a batch of petitions filed by DMK, AIADMK, CPI(M), the Tamil Nadu government and others for implementing 50% reservations for OBCs in medical courses in all-India quota seats for colleges in the state. The petitioners had then preferred to approach the High Court.