PG medical admissions: Maharashtra SC approves 20 percent quota for in-service officers

The Supreme Court upheld on Thursday the Maharashtra government’s decision to give in-service officers a 20% reservation for postgraduate medical admissions in the state. A mid-year change in the rules made it difficult for the panel to accept the petitioners’ claim that the government resolution should not apply during the current academic year. The bench declared, “We are of the considered opinion that involvement is not required in the Bombay High Court judgment.”

A petition filed by certain candidates against a decision of the high court that denied them relief was being heard by the top court. The Maharashtra government resolution had said that “from the academic year 2022–23, government authorisation is being given to reserve 20% seats for in-service applicants for admissions to PG medical and diploma courses in government and civic-run medical colleges in the state.”

The government approved reserving 20% of seats for in-service applicants for admission to PG medical and diploma programmes at government and civic-run medical colleges in the state beginning in the academic year 2022–2023, according to the government. With the exception of this reservation, in-service candidates will only be admitted based on their performance on the NEET-PG exam. 50% of seats in post-MBBS diploma programmes were reserved for in-service medical officers until 2017.