NEET-PG Counselling : Supreme Court Refuses To Allow Students Who Surrenderd State Quota Seats To Attend Mop Up Rounds; Permits Them To Rejoin State Seats

In the NEET-PG 2021 Counselling matter, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea by students, who had resigned from the seats allotted in the Round-2 of State Quota Counselling, seeking permission to attend the Mop-Up rounds.However, the Court has allowed such students to rejoin the State seats from which they initially resigned by April 9 5 PM.A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Sanjiv Khanna and Surya Kant was dealing with petitions filed by students who had surrendered their seats allotted in Maharashtra and Gujarat state quotas.The petitioners had in essence sought a declaration that the restriction in the March 31 order of the Supreme Court for State Quota candidates to join Mop-Up round applies only to those candidates who were holding State Quota seats as on 31.3.2022, and not to those who had resigned/cancelled/surrendered the State Quota Round 2 seat prior to 31.3.2022 in compliance the notice issued by the Medical Counselling Commiteee on 16.03.2022.It may be noted that the bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud on March 31, 2022 had cancelled the Mop-Up Rounds and directed the holding of a Special Round of Counseling for the 146 seats and has allowed students who have joined the AIQ or the State Quota in Round 2 to participate in this round for 146 seats. The Court has also upheld the March 16 advisory which prevents students who have taken seats in State Quota after Round 2 from participating in the Mop-Up.Advocate Shivendra Singh (for candidates from Maharashtra) and Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde (for candidates from Gujarat) argued that students who had surrendered the state quota seats as per the MCC circular should be considered differently from those who were holding to state quota seats as on March 31. They submitted that the candidates should not be made to suffer for acting as per the MCC's circular. It was argued that the March 31 order should not be applied to those who surrendered their seats before March 31.Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that allowing the petiitoners' prayer will amount to disrupting the counselling process. The ASG added that the petitioners were in effect trying to seek a review of the March 31 order, which is impermissible. Advocate Sachin Patil, appearing for the State of Maharshtra, submitted that the State had allowed the resigned students to rejoin considering their agony.Senior Advocate Hegde, to highlight the disparity, pointed out that the annual fee for the state round 2 seats is Rs.22.50 lakhs and the annual fee for the mop-up seats is Rs 1.50 lakhs.The bench observed that there cannot be an "absolutely fool proof system" and that there should be "finality to the process". The bench added that allowing the petitioners' prayer can create a "domino effect", as there will be other candidates, who might then come up with other demands.Observing so, the bench proceeded to dismiss the petitions, but allowing the candidates to rejoin the surrenderd State seats by 5PM, April 9.The bench was considering an application preferred by a group of doctors belonging to the State of Maharashtra who had participated in the counselling conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee for the 50% All- India Quota and the State Common Entrance Test Cell of the Government of Maharashtra, for the 50% State Quota.Doctors in the application filed through Advocate Shivendra Singh had sought relief of clarification of the Top Court's order dated March 31, 2022 by which the court had said that the students who have joined in round 2 of the state quota or round 2 of the AIQ shall not be eligible to participate in the mop-up round for All India Quota.The relief which was sought in this regards was that the order dated March 31 was only applicable to those candidates who had joined the State Quota Round 2 seat as on 31.3.2022, and not to those who had consciously opted to cancel/resign from the State Quota Round 2 seat by 5.00 pm on 22.3.2022 in terms of Notice dated 17.3.2022 issued by the State Common Entrance Test Cell of the Government of Maharashtra.Doctors in the plea had also sought for non application of March 31 order for the Students who were given a choice by the State Government to join again in the second round state quota by April 6 till 5 PM. It was argued in the application that although the petitioners had tendered their resignations from their allotted seats by the State Common Entrance Test Cell of the Government of Maharashtra for the 50% State Quota in terms of Notice No 8 dated 17.3.2022 but they were now being informed that their names would not be sent to the MCC for participating in the All India Quota Mop-Up round which is to be re conducted.Reliance was also placed on the Counselling Brochure of the State Common Entrance Test Cell of the Government of Maharashtra wherein the State had expressly permitted the Applicant to resign from their State Round 2 Quota seat vide Clause No. 14 and 19.1 of the Information Brochure.It may be noted ...

NEET-PG Counselling : Supreme Court Refuses To Allow Students Who Surrenderd State Quota Seats To Attend Mop Up Rounds; Permits Them To Rejoin State Seats

Shruti Kakkar

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