Bhopal High Court Decision on OBC Quota

Refusing to hear a plea challenging 27% OBC quota in undergraduate medical admissions, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has recently clarified that the plea would be heard by the regular bench. However, the court has further made it clear that the OBC quota for getting admitted to UG medical courses in the State would remain at 14%, reports TOI.

Several general category students had approached the High Court and challenged the provision of 27% OBC reservation in NEET UG medical admission counselling process. As there were several other pleas related to the increased reservation for OBC students, all those cases were being heard together.

The vacation bench of the High Court comprising of Justices Atul Sreedharan and Vivek Agrawal were considering the pleas. Advocate AAditya Sanghi appeared on behalf of the petitioners.

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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, when the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the Additional Advocate General R K Verma along with the special advocates appointed by the state government, Rameshwar Singh Thakur and Vinayak Prasad Shah tried to defend the case.

At this outset, they specifically referred to the HC order dated September 1, 2021, wherein the bench while considering a bunch of pleas related to the hike in OBC quota had clarified that there would not be any interim order on this issue and a final order would be passed only after completion of the court proceedings.

Following this, the vacation bench refused to entertain the case and clarified that the regular bench, which is seized of a bunch of petitions related to the increased reservation for OBC quota from 14% to 27% in either state government jobs or admission to educational institutes.

The vacation bench of the High Court further clarified that until the regular bench pronounces any order regarding the issue, the OBC quota would continue to be 14% in Madhya Pradesh.

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