The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra Government to hold fresh counselling for students for admissions to the Post Graduate courses in medical and dental colleges.

A vacation bench of the SC passed the order after many students knocked the doors of the apex court seeking direction on the issue. A group of 17 candidates from the state filed a petition in the SC challenging the state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell’s decision to not redo the entire admission process for PG medical and dental admissions afresh, after the apex court scrapped 10 per cent economically weaker section (EWS) quota for these courses. The petitioners have requested the court to direct the state to issue a revised seat matrix without the EWS quota, which will allow all aspirants to fill fresh option forms and accordingly allot seats to them.

This is the second plea in the court against how the state conducted the admission process after the SC, in an interim order delivered last week, had declared that the 10 per cent EWS quota won’t apply to medical and dental colleges in the state unless their intake is increased.

The state, following the SC order, had cancelled admissions of 143 open and EWS candidates who were admitted on the seats reserved for EWS. These seats were given to candidates who were yet to be allotted a seat and those whose admissions were cancelled.  This allotment was challenged by three aspirants in the SC. The apex court ruled the state’s method contradicts its interim order and threatened it with contempt of court. The state was directed to allow reshuffling of admissions with an extended deadline of June 4. Following the verdict, CET cell opened the erstwhile EWS quota seats to candidates who had not confirmed the seats allotted to them

—India Legal Bureau