CHENNAI: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on Monday told the Madras High Court that the Centre was on the verge of taking a decision on implementing reservation for OBCs under the All India Quota (AIQ) of seats for admission to medical courses in Tamil Nadu.
The process was in a "very advanced stage", he told the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy when the contempt application from the DMK came up for further hearing today.
The union government is on the verge of making its decision on the implementation of the reservation in the State-surrendered medical seats for the all India quota (AIQ) in non-central medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, Mehta said and pleaded for a week's time to come up with the final decision.
The bench recorded the submission and adjourned the matter till August 3.
Originally, while passing orders on a batch of PIL petitions from the DMK and its allies, the bench, headed by the then Chief Justice A P Sahi had in July 2020, among other things, held that the issue had to be resolved between the State and the Central governments with the participation of representatives from the Medical and Dental Councils of India.
It had also suggested constitution of a committee for providing the terms of implementation of such reservation as claimed by the petitioners. The bench had held the reservation could not be applied for the then academic year due to want of time and can be implemented from the subsequent academic year (2021-22).
It added that the panel can also fix the percentage of reservation. Contending that this order was not fully complied with, the DMK preferred the present contempt application.
When it came up on July 19, the bench, led by Chief Justice Banerjee, granted a week's time to the Centre to indicate its stand as to the mode and manner of implementation of the OBC reservation quota in terms of the 1993 State Act in respect of admission of students under the AIQ seats in the State,pertaining to admission to medical courses from 2021-22.
As per the State Act, OBC reservation in Tamil Nadu was 69 per cent.