Court quashes govt notification reducing seats to 15% for in-service quota in PG medical courses: Karnataka High Court
The State government’s notification that in-service candidates would only be eligible for 15% of the total government quota seats for post-graduate medical courses in 2022-23 was vacated by the High Court of Karnataka. Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the order on October 21 while allowing the petitions filed by Swathi K.S and others
JUDGEMENT AND ORDER
After the government makes a judgment on the in-service quota and releases a new seat matrix, the process of counselling for admission to PG programmes would have to start afresh.
Petitioners challenged the government’s announcement of the 15% cut in seats, given on October 6. They said that last year, when there were only 86 qualified candidates, there were 392 open seats since 30% of the government quota was set aside for service, however this year, there are 113 qualified candidates and only 206 open seats.
Meanwhile, the government has argued that the reduction of the in-service quota from 30% to 15% was necessary because there were many more qualified applicants than there were available seats.
The Bench noted, however, that the September 29 meeting minutes, in which the decision to cut the seats was made, did not reflect this argument.
The State government’s notification that in-service candidates would only be eligible for 15% of the total government quota seats for post-graduate medical courses in 2022-23 was vacated by the High Court of Karnataka.
The Court did, however, allow the Government to re-prescribe the quota of seats for in-service candidates, providing it took into account relevant criteria. The court also invalidated the government’s seat-matrix for PG medical courses announced on October 9.
On October 21, Justices Alok Aradhe and S. Vishwajith Shetty issued the order after agreeing with the petitions submitted by doctors Swathi K.S. and others working for the Department of Health and Family Welfare in primary health centers across the state.
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Judgement reviewed by Deepa Bajaj.