SC agrees to hear plea filed by the students in Maharashtra EWS quota case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear the plea of the students pertaining to the PG medical admissions in Maharashtra.

The petitioners are claiming that they are compelled to seek post-graduate medical admission in private medical colleges, having exorbitant fees, after the apex court scrapped implementation of the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in the state.

The bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee said that it would hear the plea of students who want to be considered for admission to government colleges.

On June 4, the Supreme Court had scrapped EWS reservation for the current academic year, reverted the reserved seats to open category, and directed government to "conduct fresh counselling for PG medical seats in the state of Maharashtra for the academic year 2019-2020 by issuing fresh advertisements".

The judicature also directed the state government to conduct fresh admissions for only open category students. The order had further stated that "no student shall be permitted to change his/her preference given at the time of making application (on 5.03.2019)"

The order from the court came after the Maharashtra government in February issued a notification after the state Cabinet approved the Centre's decision to implement 10 per cent reservation to EWSstudents among the general category in government jobs and educational institutions across the state.

Parliament had passed the Constitution (124th Amendment) Bill, 2019, approving a 10 per cent reservation for economically backward sections in the general category in government jobs and academic institutions in January.