Madras High Court directs Ministry to sponsor eligible candidates under Central pool for MBBS/BDS courses from next academic year

Order comes on plea filed by recipient of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) to sponsor eligible candidates under the Central pool for MBBS/BDS courses from the next academic year.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sa. Sivasoorya who sought a direction to the MWCD to recommend him to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for admission to MBBS course. He had cleared NEET-2021.

A recipient of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar in 2016, the petitioner hoped to get selected under the Central pool allotted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development/Ministry of Women and Child Development. Since he was not allotted a medical seat, he filed the petition.

Justice G.R. Swaminathan took cognisance of the office memoranda and inter-departmental correspondence submitted by the authorities which stated that under the Central pool, originally two seats (MBBS/BDS) had been allocated to such awardees.

The judge observed, “Unfortunately, the MWCD had expressed its inability to identify the beneficiaries for seat allocation. This was in October 2021.”

As a result, the recipients of Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar ceased to enjoy the benefit. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare persisted with the MWCD to select beneficiaries. But eventually it accepted the surrender of seats and made appropriate allocations. In these circumstances, it was not possible for the court to grant any relief to the petitioner as far as the current academic year was concerned, the judge said.

“These are all policy matters. But the surrender of the seats reserved for children who had shown exceptional achievement appears to be without any rationale. I am unable to accept the stand of the MWCD that it did not have the expertise to identify the beneficiaries,” the judge said.

Further, he observed, “The yardstick is clear. If the candidate has won Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, he or she is obviously eligible. The petitioner had won the award in the year 2016. When a long-standing policy is not followed, there must be compelling reasons. In the present case, no such reasons are evident.”

The judge directed the MWCD to sponsor eligible candidates under the Central pool for MBBS/BDS courses from the next academic year, and disposed of the petition.