Madras HC upholds state's 7.5% quota for govt school students in medical colleges

The Madras High Court has ruled in favour of the government’s decision to reserve 7.5% seats for government school students in medical colleges.

The Madras High Court’s first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Thursday, April 7, ruled in favour of the government’s decision to reserve 7.5% seats for government school students in medical colleges.

The state government had announced 7.5% reservation for government school students who did their schooling at government institutes from Class 6 to Class 12.

The state said that this was to help deserving students from the underprivileged and marginalised sections of the society get admission to medical colleges. The state government defended the reservation and said that the horizontal reservation of 7.5% would help bridge the rural-urban and rich-poor divide in medical colleges.

The HC Bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed against the government decision. The petitioners had stated students in the general category were being put at a disadvantage as the state already has a 69% reservation policy. Only 31% of the seats in medical colleges was earlier available for general category students and that has been further lowered with this horizontal 7.5% reservation, they argued.

The court while ruling in favour of the reservation also urged the state government to ensure that this quota is examined every five years.