Supreme Court directive on PG medical admission

http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/22/stories/2005022203121300.htm

NEW DELHI, FEB. 21. The Supreme Court today directed the Chief Secretaries of all the States and Union Territories to furnish details of the total post-graduate medical seats in government colleges in their States and indicate 50 per cent seats to the Director-General of Health Services by February 26 for allocation to the all-India quota.

A Bench of Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice P.P. Naolekar giving this direction on a petition filed by 23 doctors aspiring for PG medical admission, asked the States to indicate the 50 per cent seats without excluding those reserved for various categories.

The DGHS was directed to compile the list of available seats under the all-India quota and inform the court on February 28.

The petitioners, Buddhi Prakash Sharma and 22 others, said the Supreme Court had directed that the all-India quota for admission to PG medical courses for 2005-2006 be increased to 50 per cent. The allotment of seats was to be done through counselling from March 3 onwards.

They said the authorities had not mentioned in the prospectus the seats available for the Central pool. They understood that the Assistant Director-General had issued a communication to all the Principals and Deans of Government Medical Colleges in the country asking them to intimate the number of seats to be filled up on an all-India basis. They had been asked to give the 50 per cent seats available for the Central pool after excluding the seats available for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, etc.

This, they said, would result in reduction in the total seats for the all-India quota.