The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a Allahabad High Court decision setting aside 50% reservation for in-house students for admissions to postgraduate courses in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
A Vacation Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta heard submissions made by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, for BHU, to stay the May 29 High Court order.
Mr. Singh submitted that the prevalent PG admission policy cannot be reversed by opening up the 50% reserved seats for candidates selected through NEET.
He submitted that the High Court passed the orders without even considering the point that the admission regulations of the Medical Council of India of March 10 were not under challenge.
Supreme Court decision
Mr. Singh argued that the High Court changed the reservation policy of two central universities merely on the basis of a writ petition.
Referring to the Supreme Court’s own decision in the 2003 Saurabh Chaudhary case setting down guidelines for PG admissions, the law officer contended that only 50% are to be filled by the all India quota.
Citing AIIMS and PGI, Chandigarh as examples, Mr. Singh said institutional preferences play an important part in admissions.
Admissions on
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, for AMU, submitted that admissions to 149 of 195 seats were already complete. The Supreme Court said it would pass orders on Wednesday.
