50 pc quota for in service doctors: SC directs Tamil Nadu govt to fill seats within 15 days
New Delhi, Dec 2: The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Tamil Nadu government to allocate 50 per cent of super-speciality seats in government medical colleges to NEET-qualified in-service candidates for the current academic year.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath directed the state government to fill the seats as per the Tamil Nadu government order dated November 7, 2020, within a period of 15 days.
The state government had vehemently defended the government order (GO) of 2020 on the Super Specialty seats.
"The state of Tamil Nadu has approached this court for clarification of an order dated March 16, 2022, that the said order is also applicable to all subsequent academic years till disposal of petitions. We have heard the counsels. The ASG submitted that last year a number of seats reserved for in-service candidates could not be filled up. She submitted that super speciality courses are valuable national assets and they cannot be permitted to go waste...
"We appreciate the anxiety of the ASG that the issue requires to be decided finally. However, for the present academic year, we find the state needs to be permitted to fill the seats based on GO," the bench said.
The top court also directed that on the 16th day, the state of Tamil Nadu will inform the Union of India with regard to all the seats which remain unfulfilled from in service candidates.
The vacant seats will be permitted to be filled in by the Union of India on the basis of All India merit list, the apex court said while posting the matter for detailed hearing on February 14, 2023.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted that since 2016 there has been no reservation in super speciality courses.
Additional Advocate General (AAG) Amit Anand Tiwari, appearing for TN, told the apex court that the state government has filed an interim application seeking clarification.
On March 16, the top court had permitted it to continue with the counselling for 2021-22 to allocate 50 per cent super-specialty seats in government medical colleges to NEET-qualified in-service candidates.
The apex court had vacated its interim order of November 27, 2020, by which it had directed that the counselling for admission to super-specialty medical courses for the academic year 2020-2021 shall proceed without providing 50 per cent quota to in -service doctors.
The top court is seized of petitions against the GO of the state government.
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Plea about 'threat' to Rahul Gandhi filed without his consent, to be withdrawn: Lawyer
Pune, Aug 13 (PTI): Hours after filing a plea in a court here claiming apprehension of threat to Rahul Gandhi from the followers of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the Congress leader's lawyer on Wednesday said it was filed without Gandhi's consent, and would be withdrawn.
He will submit another application on Thursday to withdraw the `Pursis' or the application filed before Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Amol Shinde, said Advocate Milind Pawar.
Pawar is representing Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case filed by Satyaki Savarkar, grand-nephew of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, over certain statements made by the Congress leader against the late freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue.
He drafted the application without consulting Gandhi and the latter has taken a "strong exception to the filing of this Pursis and expressed his disagreement with its contents", the lawyer said in a press release late in the evening.
The application filed by advocate Pawar earlier in the day said that complainant Satyaki Savarkar had admitted that he is also a direct descendant, through maternal lineage, of Nathuram Godse and Gopal Godse, principal accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi is the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and recently held a press conference in Delhi, placing before the nation evidence of electoral fraud by the Election Commission, the application said.
"Furthermore, during the parliamentary debate on the subject of Hindutva, there was a heated exchange between the Prime Minister and Shri Rahul Gandhi, a matter well known to the public. Against this backdrop, there is little doubt that the complainant, his great-grandfathers (the Godses), those connected with the ideology of Vinayak Savarkar, and some followers of Savarkar who are presently in power, may harbor hostility or resentment towards Gandhi," the application said.
"In light of the documented history of violent and anti-constitutional tendencies linked to the complainant's lineage, and considering the prevailing political climate, there exists a clear, reasonable, and substantial apprehension that Rahul Gandhi may face harm, wrongful implication, or other forms of targeting by persons subscribing to the ideology of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar," the application stated.
The Pune court has already granted bail to Rahul Gandhi in the defamation case. The trial is yet to begin.
Reacting to the development, Advocate Sangram Kolhatkar, Satyaki Savarkar's lawyer, asked why the application was filed in the first place. "This is nothing but an attempt to delay the trial by moving such frivolous pleas," he said.
Satyaki Savarkar has filed a defamation complaint against Rahul Gandhi, alleging that in a speech made in London in March 2023, the Congress leader claimed that V D Savarkar had written in a book that he and five to six of his friends once beat up a Muslim man and he (Savarkar) felt happy.
No such incident ever took place, and V D Savarkar never wrote any such thing anywhere, the complaint claimed.
