The NEET-PG counselling protests that came to a halt a few days back finally has a conclusion. The Supreme Court today has accepted the recommendations of the Ajay Bhushan Pandey committee and given nod to NEET-PG admissions with 27% quota for OBCs, 10% for economically weaker sections for 2021-22. It will also stick to Rs 8 lakh criteria for identifying economically weaker sections in the current admission cycle.
The decision was taken by a two-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna on Thursday and announced their verdict today. Counselling for NEET-PG was suspended for a long time to the pending petitions.
The Ajay Bhushan Pandey Committee was set up to analyse the feasibility of the Rs 8 lakh limit after the SC in previous hearings wanted to know what exercises were undertaken before fixing the limit of Rs 8 lakh.
The justice bench pointed out that Rs 8 lakh was fixed for the OBC quota and that people from that community face social and educational backwardness. The bench added that under the constitutional scheme, the EWS is not socially or educationally backwards hence the percentage various for OBCs and EWS.
The court explained that it was passing the order to ensure that the admission process is not dislocated. The Centre had previously agreed to look at the income criterion for EWS candidates with a fresh perspective.
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