The Supreme Court on Wednesday shot down a decision of the Karnataka Government to reserve all State quota Government post-graduate medical/dental seats for students who either resided or did their schooling in the State.
Striking down the objectionable clause contained in Clause 4.1 of the Information Booklet for Post Graduate Entrance Test 2018 published on March 10, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and UU lalit said that in 2014, the apex court had repelled similar condition imposed by Karnataka Government.
The bench held such a clause to be invalid as "it disqualifies petitioners and similarly situated candidates who completed their MBBS/BDS Degree Courses from colleges situated in Karnataka from competing for admission to Post-Graduate Medical/Dental Courses in Government Medical Colleges and against Government quota seats in non-governmental institutions."
The Court directed the State authorities to urgently modify the Information Booklet and hold admissions to the PG seats as per the schedule fixed by the Medical Council of India (MCI). The petition filed by a group of 44 doctors who did their MBBS/BDS from institutions within Karnataka brought the issue to Court seeking urgent orders as the admission was due to begin. The Information Bulletin issued by Karnataka stated that for admission to PG medical/dental course, the candidate should be of Karnataka origin or should have completed Class 11 and 12 from an institution in the state.
The state argued that such eligibility condition was introduced to fulfill the state's requirement of skilled human resource. It cited the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulation 2000 of MCI that allows any State to stipulate eligibility conditions for post-graduate courses. It quoted figures to state that candidates of Karnataka origin numbering 4093 candidates would be competing for admission to 1828 seats while 10003 candidates of non-Karnataka origin would be competing for admission to 2301 seats.
However, it was the MCI which pointed out to the 2014 apex court decision in Vishal Goyal case to knock out the state's eligibility condition as violative of equality enshrined under Article 14 of the Constitution.