NEET-AIQ : Centre Decides To Review Rs 8 Lakh Criteria For EWS; Counselling Deferred By Four More Weeks

The Central Government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it has decided to revisit the Rupees 8 lakh annual income limit set for determining the Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) and will take a fresh decision within 4 weeks.The Centre further assured that the counselling for NEET admissions will be deferred for a further period of four weeks till a fresh decision is taken on EWS criteria.It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had earlier raised several questions about this criteria for EWS and made a prima facie observation that it appeared to be arbitrary, while hearing a batch of petitions related to NEET-AIQ.As the matter was taken on Thursday, the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told the Court, "In the matter I have instruction to say that the govt has decided to revisit the criteria. We will formulate a committee and take a fresh decision within 4 weeks. Till then the counselling shall remain stayed only. I give my assurance".Taking note of this development, Senior Advocate Arvind P Datar, appearing for the petitioners, suggested that the implementation of the EWS could be postponed to next academic year, as the admissions for this year are already delayed.The bench asked the Solicitor General if this option could be explored. "What happens is that we are at the end of November. Suppose you complete it by the end of December and then implementation etc and then the terms would begin only sometime in February-March. Two months, the students are losing the time. This is something you may want to consider", Justice DY Chandrachud, the presiding judge of the bench asked.The Solicitor General replied that it might be a difficult proposition as the Government wants to take steps as per the Constitutional Amendment providing for economic reservation."Deferring the constitutional amendment should be the last thing...", advanced the SG"That is only an enabling provision", said Justice Chandrachud"But that is brought into the operation. The government intends to enforce it", submitted the SGJustice Surya Kant noted, "EWS is a very pragmatic and progressive kind of reservation for which the State must be credited. The only issue is as to how to adjust it, whether horizontal or vertical.."Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, for the petitioner, advanced, "The people getting more than 70,000 Rs. per month, can they be called EWS? Eight lakh limit is the question"Justice Surya Kant said, "For that, they can work out""That is what we are doing", assured the SG"You were supposed to do it before Diwali", submitted Mr. DatarJustice Chandrachud said, "If you push them too much, too fast, then there would be another set of petitions challenging the arbitrariness""We are closing on 17. 16 is the last working day. They can atleast report to the court by the 12 so that in the miscellaneous week we can have some idea whether to go on with the counselling or not go on with counselling", told Mr. Datar. "If they have to do it, let them do it in a proper way. We don't want to push them in a situation where they do something in an improper way- you know, all the problems that we have noticed in our order. Four weeks is not unreasonably long. I am only worried that medical admissions and the medical year is being postponed", Justice Chandrachud said.The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath, which was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to introduce EWS/OBC reservation in the All India Quota for NEET, recorded the submission of the Solicitor General in the order.The bench recorded in the order in that the assurance given by the Centre regarding deferral of counselling will continue and posted the petitions for hearing on January 6, 2022.The Solicitor General assured the bench that efforts will be taken to take a decision on EWS criteria as soon as possible. The order passed by the bench recorded as follows :"The learned Solicitor General who appears on behalf of the Union of India along with ASG KM Nataraj state that the Government has taken a decision to revisit the criteria with regard to determining the Economically Weaker Sections in terms of the provisions of the explanation to Art 15 of the Constitution inserted by the 103rd Constitutional Amendment Act. The Solicitor General states that a period of 4 weeks would be required for this exercise and pending its conclusion, the date of counselling shall stand postponed. This is in view of the assurance which was made at a earlier stage. We direct for listing the hearing of the proceedings on January 6, 2021".Advocate Vivek Singh pointed out to the bench that in a connected matter, in which he is being led by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, the challenge is also with regards to reservation for 27% OBC. The bench told him that it has not expressed anything about OBC reservation till now.Earlier proceedings On October 24, 2021, the Central Government had assured the Supreme Court that the counselling ...

NEET-AIQ : Centre Decides To Review Rs 8 Lakh Criteria For EWS; Counselling Deferred By Four More Weeks

Shruti Kakkar

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