Tripura High Court has barred admissions to MBBS course under socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) and economically weaker section (EWS) quotas after hearing a writ petition filed by a medical aspirant challenging the admissions under these reserved categories this year.
Chief Justice AA Kureshi, in an interim order, has allowed the concerned authorities to continue the second counselling process. However, no admissions under the SEBC (by whatever name called) or EWS quotas will be granted without the leave of the court.
Petitioner Swapnanil Chowdhury stated that he was a domicile of Tripura belonging to the unreserved category and had applied for the medical seat pursuant to the notification of state government.
Out of 85 per cent domicile seats in Tripura, 17 per cent seats are reserved for scheduled castes and 31 per cent for scheduled tribes.
This year, the state government has also provided additional reservation for SEBC and EWS categories and as many as 18 seats have been allocated under them out of the domicile quota.
‘Tripura has no laws providing reservations under SEBC or EWS categories’
According to the petitioner, Tripura has no laws framed providing reservations under SEBC or EWS categories, and since the reservation is being given out of the unreserved seats, the admission of unreserved category aspirants is obstructed.
The petitioner informed the court that in the admission notification, three seats have been reserved for OBC in Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal and 10 seats have been reserved for EWS candidates in Agartala Govt Medical College.
Although reservation for economically weaker sections has been granted through constitutional amendment, Tripura assembly has passed no resolution in this regard and since Tripura has already 48 per cent reservation, as per the constitution there was no further scope of any more reservation for SEBC category unless the state government decides.
However, the state government argued that the Medical Council of India has allotted an additional 25 seats to the aspirants under the EWS category in Agartala Govt Medical College this year. Out of which, 10 seats have been reserved for EWS category.
The next hearing of the case has been fixed on December 11.
