On August 21, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of several students from reserved categories who had been denied admission to MBBS courses under the Unreserved Category Government School (UR-GS) quota in Madhya Pradesh.
This decision overturns the Madhya Pradesh High Court's rulings from December 2023 and January 2024, which supported the state's decision to deny these students admission despite their higher merit scores compared to some admitted candidates.
The case revolved around the Madhya Pradesh government's handling of horizontal reservations as stipulated by the Admission Rules, 2018. The petitioners, who qualified under reserved categories, argued that they should have been given the UR-GS quota seats before these were allocated to the open category. They contended that their higher scores warranted their inclusion in the UR-GS category.
The Supreme Court, with Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan presiding, found the state's methodology of further subclassifying candidates into categories to be legally unsustainable. Justice Gavai noted that the petitioners, who had higher marks than some admitted under the UR-GS category, were unjustly denied their rightful seats.
As the admissions process for the 2023-24 academic year has concluded, the Supreme Court directed the Madhya Pradesh government to admit these students in the upcoming 2024-25 academic session. An interim order by the Court had already reserved seven seats for this purpose. This landmark decision is expected to have significant implications for implementing reservation policies in educational institutions nationwide.
