CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered the central government and the Puducherry Government to respond to a petition seeking 10% horizontal reservation in medical admissions to those who had studied in government schools in the Union Territory. The Congress government in Puducherry had recommended the reservation and is awaiting the Centre's nod.
According to the petitioner Mahalakshmi, mother of class 12 student Subulakshmi, of Thanthai Periyar Government Higher Secondary School, the Puducherry government had recommended a 10% horizontal reservation for government school students in medical admissions this year. Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi had referred the recommendation to the Union Home Ministry.
However, with the Centre yet to respond to the recommendation, the petitioner sought that the court issue a direction for a quick decision to be made.
The petitioner pointed out that the Tamil Nadu government had begun to provide 7.5% horizontal reservation in medical seats to students from government, Corporation and municipality schools.
She also sought that the Court restrain the Puducherry government from conducting counselling for medical seats this year, until the disposal of her writ petition.
The petitioner said that her daughter had secured 72% marks in her Class 12 exams and a 47.95 percentile in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). In comparison to private college students, only a small number of Government school students get admitted to medical colleges, she added.
Hearing the submissions made Justice Anand Venkatesh sought a report from the counsel for the petitioner on the status of the representation made by the Puducherry Governor to the central government.
In reply, the counsel for the petitioner sought time from the court for a detailed report to be filed.
The court recording the submissions made by the counsels ordered issuing of notices to the central government and the Puducherry government to file a detailed report by December 21.
The special reservation provided by the Tamil Nadu government for the government school students is under legal challenge by a private school student. However, the court had refused to pass any interim order to strike down the admissions given to the government school students under the new quota.