CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to stay medical admission under the 7.5 per cent reservation provided for students for government schools as it would lead to a chaos. However, the court agreed to hear the plea challenging the reservation in detail after Pongal vacation.
The issue pertains to a batch of pleas moved by students whose opportunity to secure admission to medical courses was allegedly affected by the 7.5 per cent reservation introduced by the State government. According to the petitioners, providing a further 7.5 per cent reservation to government school students above and beyond the existing scheme of reservations is unreasonable.
Counsel for the petitioner contended that the State already provides 69 per cent reservation in admission to government educational institutions which is clearly above the 50 per cent benchmark set by the Supreme Court. Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution can be provided only for socially educationally backward classes and economically weaker sections. The present classification does not fall into these categories, he added.
Arguing for the State, Advocate-General Vijay Narayan submitted that the reservation has been introduced based on the recommendations of Justice Kalaiyarasan Committee. The petitioners sought for the committee report be submitted to the court. Recording the submissions, the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy assured that the court would be hearing the pleas challenging the reservation and will address it soon. The bench directed State to submit report of the committee and file a counter.