[NEET] Reservation not at odds with merit: Supreme Court upholds 27% OBC quota in AIQ seats

Reservation for backward classes is not at odds with merit but it furthers distributive impact, the Supreme Court said on Thursday while upholding the 27 percent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) All India Quota (AIQ) seats in State government medical institutions [Neil Aurelio Nunes v. Union of India]..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said that competitive exams do not reflect economic social advantage which is accrued to some classes."Articles 15(4) and 15 (5) are not an exception to Article 15 (1), which itself sets out the principle of substantive equality (including the recognition of existing inequalities). Thus, Articles 15 (4) and 15 (5) become a restatement of a particular facet of the rule of substantive equality that has been set out in Article 15 (1);," the Court said. .The top court further held that merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunity."Competitive examinations assess basic current competency to allocate educational resources but are not reflective of excellence, capabilities and potential of an individual which are also shaped by lived experiences, subsequent training and individual character. Crucially, open competitive examinations do not reflect the social, economic and cultural advantage that accrues to certain classes and contributes to their success in such examinations," the judgment said..The verdict came on a petition challenging reservation for OBC and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) introduced by the Central government in the AIQ seats in State government medical institutions.The Court had, by way of a short order on January 7, upheld the reservation of 27 percent for OBCs in AIQ seats.However, it had not given detailed reasons for the same, which it did today by way of today's judgment.The scheme of AIQ, the verdict said, was devised to allot seats in State-run medical institutions."The Union Government was not required to seek the permission of this Court before providing reservation in AIQ seats. Therefore, providing reservation in the AIQ seats is a policy decision of the Government, which will be subject to the contours of judicial review similar to every reservation policy," the judgment stated..On the concept merit, an oft-repeated argument, to decry reservation, the Court said that high scores in an examination are not a proxy for merit."Merit should be socially contextualized and reconceptualized as an instrument that advances social goods like equality that we as a society value. In such a context, reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers its distributive consequences," the Bench held. .The Court, however, said that the validity of criteria for determining EWS quota will have to be heard at length by the Court later in March this year."For EWS, we have said that argument of petitioners in validity of EWS was not limited to its share in AIQ but also on the basis criteria. Thus, it needs to be heard in detail," the Court said.Meanwhile, the admissions to the NEET postgraduate (PG) courses for the year 2021 will be held as per the existing reservation of 27 percent for OBCs and 10 percent for EWS."Any change in the eligibility status for reservation at this stage would have caused confusion and led to possible litigation challenging such a change. This would have only caused further delay. We are still in the midst of the pandemic and any delay in the recruitment of doctors would impact the ability to manage the pandemic. Hence, it is necessary to avoid any further delays in the admission process and allow counselling to begin immediately. As a result, we allow the implementation of EWS reservation in AIQ seats in NEET UG and PG seats for the academic year of 2021-2022," the top court reasoned. .The Court also noted that the notification dated July 29, 2021, was issued much before the exams were conducted and the counselling process was to begin. "It cannot be said that the rules for the game were set when the registrations closed on 15 March 2021 as has been urged on behalf of the petitioners," the Bench ruled..[Read Judgment]