Apex court strikes down domicile-based quota in PG medical admissions

New Delhi/ Hyderabad: Setting an important precedent, the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday mandated that admissions to the PG medical courses under state quotas must be determined solely on merit in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

The apex court said that domicile-based reservations in postgraduate (PG) medical courses are impermissible, declaring them unconstitutional for violating Article 14 of the Constitution.

“We are all domiciles in the territory of India. There is nothing like a provincial or state domicile. There is only one domicile. We are all residents of India,” the bench stated, underscoring that Article 19 of the Constitution grants every citizen the right to reside, trade, and pursue a profession anywhere in the country. The court said the Constitution bestows the right to seek admission in educational institutions across India, and that any form of domicile-based restriction at the PG level disrupts this foundational principle. However, the judgment is unlikely to impact the current year of NEET PG admission in Telangana as the admission process was already going on. But it certainly would impact the Telangana students from next year as they would be losing about 1,500 seats and will have to compete with students from across the country, some experts feel.

The experts said that the verdict of the Apex Court would affect Telangana more because there are there are 64 medical colleges both private and government and about 40 to 45 colleges are offering PG seats.

A senior doctor from the city Dr Syed Noorullah M Quadri said that the judgement is going to badly affect the state. A student with a rank of 1.1 lakh would have got the para clinical branches in the state with the help of domicile reservation. But now, the students will have to compete with students from other states as the 1,500 odd seats will be in the open category. The students from South India especially from Kerala and Tamil Nadu used to prefer Telangana. Now they may also have to compete with students from across the country, said Dr Noorullah.