Madras HC wants Centre to fix OBC quota for its medical seats

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has green-flagged OBC reservation under the all India quota (AIQ) medical seats in non-central institutions as well, and has given three months for the Centre to take a decision on the percentage.
While Tamil Nadu political parties demand 50% for OBCs, the central scheme allows only 27%. “…we find that in principle there is no legal or constitutional impediment for extending the benefit of reservation to OBC in the state-surrendered AIQ seats of the UG/PG medical courses in state-run medical colleges within Tamil Nadu, subject to any further directions or orders of the apex court,” ruled the first bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Monday.

The issue relates to denial of MBBS and post-graduate medical seats in state government medical colleges under AIQ for OBC candidates.While SC/STs and economically weaker section candidates have access to AIQ through reservation, OBCs were not included in the quota net. All top parties in Tamil Nadu, except the BJP, jointly initiated the present legal proceedings.
On Monday, rejecting the contention of Medical Council of India (MCI) that permitting reservation in AIQ seats would compromise merit, the court said: “This argument gets diluted, as NEET examinations are now clearly designed to allow only such candidates to be admitted, who secure a minimum merit.” Thus, application of any reservation rule, be it at the instance of the state-specific law or as per any reservation policy framed by the central government for AIQ seats, will not affect merit, the court said.
The MCI said the state reservation would apply only to AIQ medical seats in central institutions, whereas the affidavit of the Centre before the SC and the HC said there was a proposal to provide OBC reservation in state government colleges, subject to the condition that the overall reservation would not exceed 50% of the total seats under AIQ. These two factors, as also a letter from the Union health minister to DMK’s senior advocate P Wilson recognising the sanctity of state law, played a vital role for the bench in penning the verdict.
The bench, however, refrained from issuing an overt directive to the Centre saying, “A straight mandamus for extending the benefit of reservation from this court may not be possible unless a crystallized right takes a shape. The interference with a policy matter, if already taken, may be permissible through a judicial review to a limited extent but, on the other hand, it is debatable as to whether a policy framed in the shape of a proposal and not implemented can be enforced in the absence of a crystallized legal right.”
“We are issuing the direction which is not a policy declaration nor a mandamus to declare a policy,” the judges said, adding: “The proposal (to provide OBC reservation) as committed is already in place as professed by the central government and legally supportable by a state law. Since the seats are of AIQ, therefore, it requires a decision with the participation of the authorities keeping in view the fact that the control of coordinated standards of higher education is with the central government and the MCI in such matters, as held by the Constitution bench in Saurabh Chaudri’s case,” the court added.
To apply this on principle, the matter has to be resolved between the state and the Centre with the participation of the MCI and dental council, the bench said, and added: “Therefore, we find that it would be appropriate that the issue is referred to a committee for providing the terms of implementation of such reservation as claimed by the petitioners.”
The court also made it clear that any decision of the committee would apply only to future academic years and not this academic year.