Reiterating its 2015 judgment that medical education should be “unreserved, open, and free” to usher in the best talents, the Supreme Court on Friday directed Tamil Nadu government to forgo its policy of exclusively offering admissions to super-speciality medical courses to students domiciled or who have done their medical post-graduation in the State and open its doors to aspirants across the country during this academic year.
A Bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice C. Nagappan, in an interim order, extended the period for online applications by another three days from July 2 while directing the State to give wide publicity so that students across the country apply for super-speciality courses in the State. The exams are scheduled for July 10.
Tamil Nadu, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi and B. Balaji, argued that 50 per cent of the students completing their PG were anyway from other States, thus ensuring ample all-India representation.
Reacting to the Tamil Nadu government’s contention that the policy of offering admission to super-specialty medical courses to only those students who have domicile or who have done their medical post-graduation in the State is aimed at giving a leg up to the students from the State, the Supreme Court warned that it would even stay the July 10 exams if its order was not complied. On Tamil Nadu's request, the Bench had agreed to hear detailed arguments on July 14.
The Centre’s counsel submitted that Tamil Nadu was the only State still adhering to the domicile policy.
The Bench passed this order on an application filed by Dr. Sandeep Sadhashiva Rao Kansurkar challenging the reservation in super-specialty courses in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu based on domicile as discriminatory.
In 2015, a Bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice P.C. Pant had dealt with the situation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, ordering both States to drop its policy of reserving seats for super specialty medical courses to only students domiciled there. The court had decided to deal with Tamil Nadu’s case separately.
In last year’s judgment for the Bench, Mr. Misra observed that any hope for a progressive change as far as reservation policy was concerned had remained merely a hope.
“The fond hope has remained in the sphere of hope although there has been a progressive change. The said privilege remains unchanged, as if to compete with eternity,” Mr. Misra had said. It had also asked Andhra Pradesh and Telangana authorities to objectively assess the policy to see whether it does justice to the aspirations of students and approach the issue keeping national interest as paramount. The petition had pointed out how students from other States such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Bihar and Haryana, allow candidates from throughout India to appear in their entrance examinations.
The judgment had recorded the frustration of the students against the “clear disparity and state of inequality”
