SC to hear on June 10 pleas challenging its order on Mahrashtra EWS quota row

The Supreme Court will hear on June 10 a batch of petitions seeking a modification of its order restricting students from changing their original options for admission in post-graduate medical and dental courses in Maharashtra and directing the state to conduct fresh counselling this year.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi said on Friday that it would take up the plea filed by a group of medical students on June 10.

The apex court had on Tuesday asked the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell to conduct one round of counselling by physical verification of the students this year.

On May 31, the court had directed the state government to complete the counselling process and come up with a revised merit list for admission in the postgraduate medical courses after removing seats allotted under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota to 25 students.

A bench headed by Justice MR Shah had asked the state government to complete the counseling process by June 4.

The court had also pulled up the Maharashtra government for overreaching its order against implementation of 10 per cent EWS quota in seats for the courses.

Earlier, it had stayed the state government's order to give 10 per cent reservation to post-graduate medical students belonging to EWS in the general category for the academic year 2019-20.

In February, the Maharashtra government had issued a notification after the state Cabinet approved the Centre's decision to implement 10 per cent reservation to EWS students 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.