In-service quota in PG NEET 2022: HC quashes seat matrix notification

The High Court of Karnataka has quashed the seat matrix notification issued by the Director of Medical Education on October 6, 2022, whereby seats earmarked for in-service candidates for PG-NEET 2022 were reduced from 30% to 15%.

Disposing of a batch of petitions, a division bench headed by Justice Alok Aradhe also reserved liberty to the state government to prescribe the quota for in-service candidates afresh while taking into account relevant criteria, and fill the seats.

Every year, the state government earmarks seats for admission to PG medical courses for in-service candidates. It had earmarked 30% of the seats for in-service candidates and thereafter 392 seats in postgraduate courses.

The Director of Medical Education issued a merit list of eligible 130 candidates for counselling and subsequently, the government issued a notification on October 6, 2022, reducing the earmarked seats to 15% for in-service candidates.

The petitioners had served in rural areas for three years at government hospitals before appearing for PG-NEET. They contended that relevant factors for deciding the quota for in-service candidates have not been taken into account. The government argued that seats were reduced because the number of candidates for the academic year 2022-23 was lower than the number of available seats.

"The decision to reduce the quota from 30% to 15% has been taken to provide non-in-service meritorious students to get the seat as per their merit. The aforesaid criteria is wholly irrelevant for reduction of seats. The relevant criteria is the number of seats as well as the number of in-service candidates who have qualified to participate in the counselling. The in-service candidate needs to have a better ratio of choice," the bench said.

The court also observed that the ratio in the preceding year was 1:5, by which candidates had the option to choose one of five available seats. This year the ratio has been virtually reduced to 1:1, the court noted.

"The quota for in-service candidates has been reduced without assigning any cogent reasons and the decision appears to have been taken in a casual and cavalier manner. The relevant facts while reduction of quota from 30% to 15% have not been considered by the state government while reducing the quota," the court said.