A flawed seat allotment process by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) under the Union health ministry has dashed dreams of many reserved category candidates from Other Backward Class (OBC) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS).
According to the well-settled legal principle of reservation, when a reserved category candidate gets higher marks or ranking, they should get a general category seat. Contrary to this legal norm, the MCC has earmarked allotments of reserved category seats to even meritorious OBC and EWS candidates. Due to this, the general category candidates have benefited at the cost of OBC and EWS candidates.
The Union government offered reservations to OBC and EWS candidates in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education for the first time in the academic session of 2021-22.
Candidates who clear the National Eligibility cum Employment Test (NEET) get admission to various colleges through centralised counselling by a designated authority in every state. In 1984, the Supreme Court for the first time decided that 15 per cent of seats in all state-run government colleges would come into All-India Quota. Since states had started denying admission to candidates from other states, the apex court created this All-India Quota.
So the MCC conducts the counselling process for all seats of central-government run medical colleges, deemed universities and All-India Quota seats of state government colleges.
The issue of wiping off seats for reserved candidates has come to light after an OBC student, 18-year-old Shivanii from Puducherry, filed a case in Madras High Court. She filled her registration form and chose Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (IGMCRI) Puducherry as her first preference.
According to her petition, IGMCRI has a total of 27 seats in the All-India Quota, out of which 11 seats fall in the general category and 7 in OBC. The merit list of candidates who have been admitted to the college shows that a student Thiru Nidhi Kapoor has a 9032 rank which is higher than many other general category candidates. However, her admission is earmarked as OBC category.
“Nidhi is among the seven OBC candidates who have taken admission in the college. Legally, she should have allotted one seat out of 11 general category seats because her ranking is higher than general category candidates. So she has qualified for unreserved general pool,” said M Ravi, Shivanii’s lawyer.
He added, “Had that happened, one seat of the OBC category would have fallen vacant and Shivani would have got that seat. The High Court issued orders to the MCC and asked it to change the category of Nidhi Kapoor and issue the seat to Shivanii if otherwise eligible. The most disheartening issue is that MCC did not comply with the Court orders.”
Prof. Dr. B Srinivas, Additional Director General (Medical Education) and Member Secretary of MCC, in a letter addressed to her lawyer, argued that Shivanii’s ranking is very low, so she couldn’t get that seat.
Shikhar Ranjan, an advocate and a former Law Officer in the erstwhile regulator Medical Council of India, said. “Even if Shivanii’s rank is very low and she couldn’t get the OBC seat after getting it vacated by Nidhi, this seat would go to any other deserving OBC candidate. The counselling process of MCC appears to be in breach of the settled legal proposition that if a candidate though belonging to the OBC category secures higher marks and is a meritorious candidate, then he/she shall automatically be earmarked only under the Open category for the purpose of allotment of seats.”
Dr. Srivinas also said in his letter that all the 27 seats of IGMCRI have already been allotted to candidates and no seats are left vacant in the said college. The matter is pending before the high court for the final order.
But IGMCRI is not the only college where such violations have taken place. The list of admitted candidates in the All-India Quota in many other medical colleges has also shown similar manipulations.
A Puducherry-based medical education counsellor Panchapakesan Ganesan has conducted a thorough analysis of OBC and EWS seat distribution in six medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and has alleged similar violations.
Ganesan said, “Such violations might have happened in many other colleges as well as MCC conducts counselling for around 9500 medical seats in government colleges for MBBS. It is a grave injustice to OBC and EWS candidates as several seats that would have been allotted to them have now gone to general category candidates.”
He added, “I suggest instead of brushing the matter under the carpet, the MCC should look for a way out to compensate seats to OBC candidates on those seats that may fall vacant due to admission cancellations or any other way and also allot a seat to Ms Shivanii, who has bugled such a big issue which have gone unnoticed otherwise.”
Incidentally, Ganesan was the person who brought up the issue of illegal medical admissions done after the cut-off date in 2016, which resulted in the discharge of 778 students who were admitted to the MBBS course. The verdict of the case is awaited anytime in the Madras High Court.
Outlook wrote to Dr. Srinivas for his comment but he did not offer his comment.
