The Union Home Ministry on Thursday informed the Madras High Court of having rejected a proposal mooted by the Puducherry Cabinet in November to provide 10% horizontal reservation to government school students in admission to medical and dental courses.
The court was told that the decision was taken after receiving comments from various other Ministries, including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Appearing before Justice B. Pugalendhi, Additional Solicitor General R. Sankaranarayanan said the Union Home Ministry had sent a communication to the Puducherry Chief Secretary on Wednesday stating that the proposal of the Cabinet had “not been agreed to”.
The submission was made during the hearing of a writ petition filed by a government school student, who had sought a direction to the Centre to approve the Cabinet decision.
‘Against social justice’
Senior Counsel P. Wilson, representing the writ petitioner Subbulakshmi, said, “This is atrocious. Such rejection is not legally tenable. It is against social justice. It is very unfortunate that the Centre has made such submission in court when the same horizontal reservation has been made available to government school students in the neighbouring State of Tamil Nadu. Reservation comes within the purview of the Puducherry Cabinet.”
After hearing both sides, the judge adjourned the hearing after permitting the senior counsel to file a detailed rejoinder to a counter affidavit filed by the Union Home Ministry.
The counter stated that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was completely against grant of horizontal reservation to government school students in medical admissions because it would dilute merit-based admissions introduced through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). “Also, this may lead to similar/other demands from other States, undoing the reform of merit-based admission. NEET provides for uniform national standards, imbibing the principle of ‘one nation, one merit’,” the Health Ministry said and feared that students might take namesake admission in government schools to claim a medical seat.
In an affidavit filed on behalf of the minor petitioner, her mother Mahalakshmi stated that her daughter had completed Class XII at Thanthai Periyar Government Higher Secondary School in March. She secured 72% marks in her Plus Two examinations and 47.95% in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). She was confident of getting a medical seat if the Cabinet decision was implemented. Stating that government school students stand a feeble chance of getting admitted in medical colleges compared to private school students, she said only 16 to 22 government school students had got admission every year since 2016-17. On the other hand, the number of private school students admitted in medical colleges every year hovered between 243 to 402 since 2016-17, she added.
