Maharashtra EWS quota: Vacant seats after scrapping EWS quota to be filled based on merit, SC

The Supreme Court today refused to modify or clarify the Court’s previous order that had directed the State of Maharashtra to conduct fresh counselling of students for admissions to PG medical courses..The Court stated that the order is clear and there appears no ambiguity that requires clarification..The Vacation Bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi was hearing three applications related to the EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) quota application in PG Medical Colleges..One application contended that the June 4 order which specifically stated that no petition or application in relation to admission this year shall be entertained by this Court may come in the way of the Bombay High Court adjudicating the challenge to the ordinance by Maharashtra State that attempts to reinstate the SEBC quota, commonly referred to as the Maratha quota..The controversy around the SEBC (Socially and Economically Backward Classes) quota also originated from the admission process for this year, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde reasoned. He argued that the order of June 4 might lead to stalling of the proceedings before the Bombay High Court..The Court in this regard said that the order is not ambiguous and did not require any modifications or clarification..The second application sought a modification of the order to the effect that with the fresh counselling taking place, the students should be allowed to change their options. The Court refused to entertain this application and expressed no inclination to modify the order..The third application was filed by a student belonging to the OBC category who claimed that the Court’s June 4 order was being misinterpreted. It was alleged that seats that have become vacant now are being reverted to General category only and students belonging to other categories, even if high on the merit list, are being excluded..While the Court refused to modify the June 4 order, it said that the seats falling vacant after scrapping of EWS quota naturally will be filled based on merit list without excluding any aspirant from any category. The order states,.“The number of seats in the quota of economically weaker section has now been scrapped by the order dated 30.05.2019. The seats will now be available in the general category and will be filled-up as per the merit in NEET in accordance with the order dated 04.06.2019. There can be no question of exclusion of any meritorious candidate irrespective of the category provided, the candidates get cut-off marks as required for the general category.”.Read the Order:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.