In recent developments, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has held that the rule which did away with regional reservations in Maharashtra for admissions to undergraduate courses in medical, is valid.
The court further stated that the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) is based on the concept of one nation, and aims to provide admissions to students based on merit only. Moreover, the bench further added that while regional reservations were the need as per a Supreme Court (SC) judgement in 1986, with development and advancement, regional reservations would be counter-productive.
A division bench of justice SV Gangapurwala and justice Shrikant Kulkarni, while hearing petitions filed by eight students aspiring to pursue medical education, was informed that the September 9 decision of the government to set aside regional reservations was not valid as it was announced after the admission process was initiated, and should be kept aside.
Therefore, according to the amended rules, all seats shall be made available for candidates from the state and shall be filled on the basis of the NEET merit list, thereby doing away with the regional reservation of 70 per cent of the seats.
On the other hand, Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in a live address to the students on December 22 stated that this year amidst the challenges, 5.1 per cent more students had applied for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) or NEET exam. The Union Minister further added that the Education Ministry has increased the number of exam centres this year to fulfil the needs of social distancing while giving the exams.
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