Against a petition by Ashish Ranjan, which seeks the Supreme Court’s intervention and monitoring of the timeframe for conducting student counselling as well as the admission process to medical courses, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh argued for the government on June 6 that a central university cannot have 50 percent institutional preference.

The court has been reviewing the timeframe in view of various hurdles faced by colleges and the Medical Council of India in filling up the seats on time.

Singh also submitted to the apex court bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Deepak Gupta that all admissions for this year are over and classes too have started. He also clarified that the Banaras Hindu University and the Aligarh Muslim University were not a party to the High Court order.

He said that the judgment on delaying the process needs to be stayed, because the entire thing—counselling, admission et al—cannot be recalled.

The bench will give its order on June 7.

—India Legal Bureau