HYDERABAD: A bench of the Telangana High Court comprising Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavali and Justice P Karthik on Wednesday set aside a portion of GO Ms No. 2 dated September 22, 2020, through which the State government withdrew the sports quota in MBBS and BDS courses.
The court also directed the petitioner to make a representation to the State government within two weeks for consideration of her plea for allotment of a seat under the sports quota. The court was hearing a writ petition filed by Ravula Laxmi Reddy, a student from Warangal, contesting the GO.
Dharmesh DK Jaiswal, counsel for the petitioner, claimed that the statutory rules for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses are contained in GO Ms 114 dated July 5, 2017, which provides a 0.5% quota for candidates in the games and sports category. The State government issued GO Ms 2 to scrap the reservation without modifying the Statutory Rules, he argued.
Counsel said that the State government incorrectly relied on an earlier order of the High Court and removed the reservation when, in fact, the court had only issued orders to form an expert committee and examine whether the sports quota was of any help to the development or contribution to sports.
Notably, the High Court did not order the abolition of sports quotas, he pointed out.