HC questions 15% unreserved quota

Court to restrict itself to the remaining 85%

The Telangana High Court has raised questions over the continuance of Article

371D and Presidential Order that stipulated 15 per cent unreserved open quota for Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and 85 per cent quota to locals of the respective regions in employment and educational institutions.

Hearing a batch of petitions filed against the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences questioning its illegal counselling procedure, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao wondered how the Presidential Order could be implemented when courts had earlier ruled against it.

However, the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 categorically said Article

371D, from which the Presidential Order took its origin, will be continued for 10 years after the bifurcation. The Reorganisation Act and its provisions never came under judicial scrutiny nor have any court struck them down.

During the course of arguments Justice

Ramachandra Rao had repeatedly referred to Justice Ramasubramanian order in Dr B. Satish Kumar vs Union of India and observed that the judgment was against the continuance of 371D and Presidential Order. At one stage, he announced that the court would not get into the 15 per cent unreserved category and restrict itself to see if any less meritorious student was accommodated in the 85 per cent quota.

A closer look into the Justice Ramasubramanian order reveals that it never went against the Presidential Order. It indeed observed that “the challenge to the reservation created in terms of Article 371D was rejected by the Supreme Court” and that “we have no alternative except to follow the law as it stands today”. It only paved way for panIndia counselling for Post Graduate and Super specialty courses by withdrawing an earlier interim stay and the case status still shows as “pending”.

“Lot of changes came into force after the Justice Ramasubramanian order including Telangana state and AP offering 15 per cent seats to all India quota in MBBS,” a senior official told Deccan Chronicle.

For the last few years, 15

per cent seats are offered to All India Quota and in the remaining 85 per cent seats, the first 15 per cent seats are filled under “unreserved open category” and 85 per cent local quota. “The present case pertains to alleged irregularities in filling the unreserved open category,” the official pointed out.

The Telangana Additional Advocate General also informed the court that Presidential Order is very much implemented in medical admissions.