The Supreme Court bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta on June 8 ordered that there should be a 50 percent reservation of seats to PG Diploma courses for government doctors who have worked for three years in remote and difficult areas of Haryana.

The bench took up a petition filed by Dr Narendra Soni and Others which asked for due weightage in applying for PG Diploma courses for such doctors. These are about seats in colleges in Haryana.

The petitioners have served in remote and difficult areas for three years.

The problem is that there is no list defining what are “remote and difficult areas”. Two rounds of counselling have been held—on June 6 and 7—but the petitioners say that with no list, they are prejudiced.

The state of Haryana submitted that they did not get enough time to issue the list of remote and difficult areas. The Medical Council of India submitted that state has the right to decide whether to give weightage or not.

In its order, the court said that 50 percent seats of medical PG Diploma courses should be given to government doctors who have worked in remote and difficult areas and the state cannot ignore that. This seat reservation is to encourage in-service doctors who have worked in difficult areas.

The fact remains that there is no list of remote and difficult areas.

The in-service doctors who have got NOC from the government should be considered for filling up 50 percent of the seats.

—India Legal Bureau