Undergraduate students to file separate petition as preemptive step

A day after Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao signed an ordinance amending the legislation regarding reservation for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC), postgraduate medical students from the open category on Tuesday moved a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging it.

While another petition is likely to be moved before the Nagpur Bench on Wednesday, undergraduate medical students will also file a petition in connection with the matter.

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The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court had on May 2 said that the 16 % SEBC quota cannot be applied to postgraduate medical admissions for this academic year. While the State had challenged the verdict, the Supreme Court had on May 9 upheld the HC order. The State had then asked the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell for a seven-day stay on the admission procedure, while simultaneously seeking an extension from the SC to complete the admission procedure.

Last week, however, the State Cabinet passed a resolution for an ordinance to amend the SEBC Act, 2018, to provide relief to aggrieved aspirants from the Maratha community, which was signed by Mr. Rao on Monday.

Stating that the ordinance violates the SC and HC rulings, open category aspirants said the apex court is their only ray of hope now. “The ordinance overrules court verdicts. We have won previously and we are hopeful of another victory,” one of the open category petitioners said on the condition of anonymity.

Shortly after the Cabinet passed the resolution for the ordinance last week, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, who is also the Cabinet head for Maratha community-related issues, had said the State would file caveats in the HC and its Nagpur and Aurangabad Benches for any challenges that the ordinance may witness.

‘Mala fide intent’

Anurag Mankar, advocate on record for Pan India Legal Services LLP, which is representing the open category students, said the State used the extension it had sought to bring in the ordinance and bypass the SC verdict with a mala fide intent.

“The ordinance bypassing the SC verdict is invalid and therefore we have challenged it. The ordinance was passed in a hasty and arbitrary manner with political interest,” he said.

Meanwhile, with the ordinance applicable to other education courses, including the undergraduate courses requiring the passing of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test or any other National Entrance Test, undergraduate aspirants from the open category are likely to move court this week.

“Our children are next in line and we are trying to take preemptive steps. By bringing in the ordinance, the State has axed several seats of our students,” Dr. Girish Dewnani, the parent of an undergraduate aspirant from Mumbai, said.

The State CET Cell said the admission procedure will proceed as per the notices issued on Monday.

“By [Wednesday] evening, we will know how many students have rejoined their original institutions allotted in the last two rounds. Based on the number of seats that remain vacant, our mop-up round will start. We will see if those who have not rejoined need more time or if there is any problem. If anybody wants to resign, they will have to give us their application that will be forwarded to the government. After the first mop-up, the remaining seats will be surrendered to the institutions, which will then start their admission process,” Anand Rayate, CET Cell Commissioner, said.