An 8 lakh annual income to be criterion factor for EWS category for NEET by centre review committee.
The Supreme court has been informed by the central government that the Economical Weaker Sections (EWS) category of reservations in NEET for Post-Graduate Medical Courses will be determined by an annual income of Rs. Eight Lakh per annum criterion.
Justices DY Chandrachud, Vikramnath & Suryakant comprise the bench that heard Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the criteria for determining factors for deciding the individuals who are to fall under the EWS category would be done by a committee being formed for the same.
Formation of the committee will take four weeks, during which period the NEET counselling will be postponed.
The Supreme court was going through pleas filed by a number of students challenging the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) & the centre for the notice of 27% reservation for OBC students & 10% for the EWS category of students on July 29th in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-PG) for admissions into medical courses for the current academic year.
Justice Kant was of the opinion that the EWS reservation quota could be seen as a progressive idea &, in fact, should be supported by all states in the country, but to determine the category of EWS, care should be taken to do the same in a proper scientifically approved method.
Justice Kant also added that the centre on revisiting the affixed criteria to restudy it is certainly a very laudable decision.
According to Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, on behalf of petitioners said that the centre should allow the counselling to carry on & postpone the implementation of the EWS category.
The bench checked the possibility of holding the implementation of EWS with Solicitor General Mehta, who has refused, saying it was not appropriate; however, if the determination of criterion is done before the scheduled four weeks, the court would be informed of the same.
The court replied to Solicitor Mehta that four weeks is good enough or the criterion might be decided in a hurry leading the results to be unscientific in the method.
Advocate Shashank Ratnoo on behalf of OBC students has requested that the OBC category students should not be deferred while the centre tries to revisit the EWS criteria, he was assured by the court.
On October 6th, the top court has checked with the centre if it’s going forward to revisit the EWS criteria to Rs. Eight Lakhs per annum, it added that if the centre has done its working before reaching the criteria limit & also if the centre has considered the 2010 report of Major Gen (Retd.) SR Sinha Commission.
The top court has decided & agreed to hear the plea petition filed by students against the MCC reservation notice for OBC & EWS categories in the Post Graduate Medical Courses for the year 2021 -22, as stated by court officials on September 17th this year.