BREAKING| ‘Merit’s Definition Cannot Be Reduced To Performance In Competitive Exams’ : Supreme Court Upholds OBC Reservation In NEET-AIQ

The Supreme Court on Thursday pronounced the detailed order giving reasons for its January 7 direction to allow the commencement of counselling process for NEET-PG and NEET-UG for 2021-22 admissions on the basis of the existing 27% quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections(EWS) in the All India Quota.
The Court has passed a detailed judgment to uphold the constitutionality of 27% OBC quota and has passed another order giving reasons for not staying the existing EWS crtiria for the ongoing admissions.

To approve 27% OBC reservation in All India Quota, a bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice AS Bopanna provided the following reasons :

Article 15(4) and Article 15(5) are not exceptions to Articles 15(1). They are restatements of the principle of substantive equality under Article 15(1)

Merit cannot be reduced to narrow definitions of performance in an open competitive examination which only provides formal equality of opportunities. Current competencies are assessed by competent examinations but are not reflective of excellence, capability and potential of an individual which are also affected by lived experiences, individual character, etc. Not reflected in exams are the social, economic and cultural advantages that accrue to certain classes and contributes to their success in these examinations.

Examinations are not a proxy for merit. Merit should be socially contextualised and re-conceptualised as an institution towards equality that we as a society value.

Reservation is not at odds with merit but furthers the distributive impact of social justice.

It may be that Individual members of an identified group which are being given reservation are not backward or individuals belonging to non-identified group may share characteristics of a backward group with members of an identified group. The individual difference may be a result of privilege, fortune and circumstances but it cannot be used to negate the role of circumstances

The observations in the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Pradeep Jain case related to domicile reservations and should be understood in that context. The Court in Pradeep Jain did not hold that reservation in AIQ seats is impermissible

Central Government was not required to seek the permission of the Court to introduce OBC quota in All India Quota. In the Abhay Naath case, the Union of India filed application before the Court for SC/ST reservation in All India Quota. The Union was not required to seek the permission of the court. Providing reservation to AIQ is a policy decision that would not be subject to Judicial Review.

It was clarified in Dinesh Kumar II that seats demarcated for AIQ shall be determined without excluding reservation as was earlier directed by Pradeep Jain and clarified in Dinesh Kumar I. This court in Buddhi Prakash Sharma erroneously understood that there should be no reservation in AIQ seat. The order in Abhay Nath was only a clarification in view of the order in Buddhi Prakash Sharma

The Government introduced OBC/EWS quota before the counselling. Thus it cannot be said that the rules of the game have been changed. Reservation would be notified by the counselling authority before the beginning of the counselling process. therefore, the candidates applying for Neet PG are not provided any information on the distribution of the seat matrix. Such information is provided by the counselling authority only after the counselling session is to begin. It does cannot cannot be argued that rules of the game were set when the registration for the examination closed.

EWS criteria

As regards criteria to determine EWS(Rupees 8 lakhs gross annual income cut-off), the Court allowed the existing criteria to operate for the current admission year so as to not delay the admission process further. However, future application of EWS criteria, which has been stipulated in the Office Memorandum of July 2019, will be subject to final outcome of the petitions.

With Thanks Refrence to : https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/merits-not-performance-in-competitive-exams-supreme-court-upholds-obc-reservation-in-neet-aiq-189905