The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave an ultimatum to five States to complete the process of admission to vacant PG medical seats against All India quota by June 25.
Dealing with an application moved by PG aspirants, the Vacation Bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen and SK Singh directed the States of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat to ensure all vacant PG Central quota seats left out after the second round of counseling were filled before June 25. In the event seats were still left to be filled, intimation about the vacancies would be made to the Director General of Health Services.
The bench had earlier fixed May 30 as the deadline for States to conduct final round of counseling and directed them to complete admission process by June 19. By June 30 the entire admission process was to get over.
On Wednesday, the Court was informed by the petitioner's counsel and senior advocate Indu Malhotra that five States had not complied with the deadline. Two of the States - Maharashtra and Gujarat, denied the charge and asserted that no seats were vacant and, hence, a second round of counseling was not needed.
Malhotra asked Court to get an affidavit from the two States as the position indicated on their websites was different. The bench, however, decided to give them a final opportunity expressing concern over PG admissions getting deferred each year on orders of the Court.
“Each year courts are just doing this work. This is not going to solve the problem,” the bench said, indicating that no counseling should be permitted beyond two rounds. “In our times, we did not have so many options. We had to take what we got,” Justice Sen said.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh informed the Court of a Constitution bench decision in 2003 which did not permit counseling to extend beyond two rounds. Already the last date of filling up PG seats had deferred beyond the original deadline of May 30. Any further concession would postpone completion of admission process by two months.
The bench indicated that once vacant seats were intimated to DGHS, the Centre must conduct another round of counseling by June 27 to ensure no seats remain vacant. Malhotra indicated that since vacant seats in All India quota revert back to State quota, no state is interested to fill them.