New Delhi, Nov 05: Giving weightage to merit, the Supreme Court in a significant judgement has opened up 50 per cent of the total seats in post-graduate courses in all government medical colleges and directed that these would be filled by an all India entrance test. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice V N Khare, in a judgement delivered on Tuesday, ruled that in super speciality courses in medicine, government colleges can reserve only 50 per cent of their seats for in-house candidates as against the earlier 75 per cent.
"Reservation by way of institutional preference should be confined to 50 per cent of the seats since it is in public interest," the bench, also comprising Justice R C Lahoti, Justice B N Agrawal, Justice S B Sinha and Justice A R Lakshmanan, said.
For the purpose of selecting candidates, it was necessary to hold an all India entrance examination by an impartial and reputed body, the bench said and added that till the Central government constituted such a body, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) would continue to hold such an entrance test for super speciality courses.
"One test shall be held for all the candidates throughout the country," Justice Khare said and added that this order was passed since at present one common entrance test was held for admissions to 25 per cent all India quota and the other tests were being conducted by the respective universities. Bureau Report