PANJIM: In a major setback to those seeking admissions for post graduate courses at Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) under the reserved category, the High Court of Bombay at Goa has struck down the government decision of reserving 41 per cent of State quota seats for SC, ST and OBC categories from 2021-22.
A writ petition filed by 110 individuals, including doctors, had challenged the reservation quota. As per the hearings held before the Division Bench comprising Justice M S Sonak and Justice M S Jawalkar, the State Government, despite its protestations to the contrary, took into account the recommendations of two Commissions.
The government decision to provide reservations to the extent of 41 per cent to PG courses at GMC for the first time from the academic year 2020-2021 was based on the recommendations of two Commissions. “The notings speak about the decision to be taken on the recommendations of the two Commissions. This, coupled with the guarded statement in the affidavit that the impugned decision was not solely based on the recommendations of the Commissions suggests that such recommendations were indeed considered by the decision makers instead of the host of relevant considerations flagged by the Supreme Court or the objections flagged by the Dean, GMC,” it said.
“The recommendation made by the two Commissions suffers from several infirmities, and such recommendations, therefore, required to be set aside. Since the State Government has taken into consideration such recommendations while making the impugned decision, the impugned decision is equally vitiated and is liable to be set aside,” the Bench noted.
“In so far as the recommendations of the Goa Commission for SC/ST as recorded in its order dated March 13, 2020 and April 22, 2020 are concerned, they are liable to be set aside because they were made in an extremely hurried, casual and cavalier manner, without even a semblance of application of mind. The complaint was received by the Commission on March 12, 2020 and the recommendations were recorded in the roznama on the very next day. They were only formalised into order on April 22, 2020. The recommendations were made without even issuing any notice to the parties that were likely to be affected or in any case without even bothering to hear the version of the State Government or more particularly the Deans of GMC and GDC,” it said.
The Court, based on the arguments from the petitioners and respondents, opined that the recommendations of the Goa Commission for SC and ST are quite unsustainable and are required to be set aside. In so far as the recommendation of the Goa State Commission for Backward Classes as reflected in its order dated March 16, 2020 concerned, again, there are several infirmities based on which, the impugned order will have to be set aside.
The Court also observed that materials placed on record indicate that the notifications of 2007 and 2014 were never applied to reservations to PG courses at GMC and GDC for a long period of about 14 years in the case of STs and about 7 years in the case of OBC. This means that from the date such notifications were issued same were never applied to reserve any seats at PG courses at GMC and GDC. “If the impact of the said rules is ignored without prejudice, then it does appear that for all these years a contrary practice has been followed in as much as there was no reservation provided to PG courses at GMC and GDC. Even rules governing the admissions to post-graduate courses at GMC and GDC, which require that the admissions to such courses must be strictly in the order of merit were never amended to factor the reservation policy or dilute the merit clause or convert the merit clause into a relative merit clause,” the court.
