MBBS/BDS seats: ‘Increase quota for wards of defence personnel’

The Madras High Court asked the State government to increase the number of seats available for the children of defence personnel under defence quota as done by other states for admission to MBBS/BDS courses from the next academic year.

A division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran (since retired) and Justice B Pugalendhi noted that in 1979, when the number of medical seats were in the hundreds, six seats were given to the children of ex-service personnel. Now, there are 26 medical colleges in the State and a total of 4,797 seats, of which 15 per cent is reserved for central government quota.

Earmarking just 11 seats for the children of defence personnel was inadequate, the bench held, adding that it should be increased as done by states like Karnataka, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. It also pointed out that in Andhra Pradesh, 1 per cent of medical seats is allotted to children of Armed Forces personnel, while in Karnataka, 10 per cent of seats under the defence quota are earmarked for serving defence personnel.

“Taking into consideration the allocation of a greater number of seats by the other states, this court expects that at least 1 per cent of the total seats would be made available to the wards of defence personnel from the next academic year onwards in medical admission, including BDS admission,” the bench stressed.

The bench was passing orders while upholding a single judge’s order which set aside a government order which, without attributing any reasons, had deleted reservation given to the wards of serving defence personnel from the horizontal reservation and confined it to wards of ex/deceased service personnel.

“When reservation is given to wards of ex-service personnel, there is no occasion to delete the wards of serving defence personnel. Thus, the omission is clearly arbitrary and irrational as found by the single judge, as it violates Article 14 of the Constitution,” the bench held.