SC Stays Maharashtra EWS quota

The Supreme Court has stayed the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota to PG medical courses in Maharashtra for the academic year 2019-20.

What did the Supreme Court Say?

• The 10per cent EWS quota cannot be granted at the cost of others unless additional seats are created by Medical Council of India (MCI).
• The modalities of selection cannot be changed after the initiation of the process. The quota cannot be applied for the academic year 2019-20 as the admission process started long before the resolution to have the reservation was enforced.
• Issuing an interim order the Supreme Court noted that it has kept in the mind the need to balance the competing claims whose balance could be upset by claim of equity, if the reserved category candidates are allowed to undergo the medical course(s) and in the event their admission is found to be untenable at a later stage of the present proceedings.

About the Case

The 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act provided 10 per cent reservations in jobs and education to the general category poor by inserting an enabling provision under Article 16. The MCI had written to the states to provide details of the course wise PG seats to enable the reservations for economically weaker sections.

The state of Maharashtra had decided to implement the reservation from this academic session. The petitioners had challenged that it was discriminatory as it had taken the overall reservation to 76 per cent, leaving very few seats in the open category. Out of a total of 972 seats in government medical colleges in the state, only 233 seats are available for general category students.