THE FIGHT FOR MERIT PREVAILS, SAY STUDENTS

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to quash reservations for students from Maratha community in educational institutes has been hailed by students seeking admissions to professional courses and their parents.

Dr Uday Dhoble, a petitioner in the case that was heard in the Apex court, said, “Along with other parents of medical aspirants, we had filed a case challenging the government rule of reservations exceeding 50%. We have nothing against the Marathas. Our contention was that if more than 50% seats are reserved, open category students will be forced to be admitted in private and deemed universities. The biggest impact of reservations was on medical students.”

“It’s a winning moment for all of us in open category. Finally merit prevails. The fight that we at Team Mumbai began at the Bombay high court (HC) in December of 2018 finally succeeded at the Supreme Court (SC) today. We are not against any caste or religion, but are against reservation going beyond 50%. Let everyone get it on economic grounds within the stipulated 50%,” said education activist and parent Sudha Shenoy, who is a part of Save Merit, Save Nation group.

Those seeking admission to other professional courses, too, have been against the Maratha reservations and filed public interest litigations challenging it in HC and SC.

In September last year, SC had stayed all recruitment and admissions in education institutes under the socially and economically backward classes (SEBC) quota for the 2020-21 academic year, with exception to postgraduate medical admissions. On September 21, Maharastra had filed a petition in the Apex court to vacate the stay on admissions. The court, however, had adjourned the hearing by four weeks.

In line with SC’S interim stay, the state education department had stayed the admission process for first-year junior college (FYJC) in September 2020.

This confusion over the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) quota had led to an unprecedented delay last year in admissions to junior colleges as well as professional courses. With SC now quashing the reservations, students hope that the admission process is streamlined this year.

“Now there’s no confusion over the quota, state common entrance test (CET) cell can conduct admission process as per schedule,” said a law aspirant.

“We are aware of the SC decision. However, CET cell is an executing body. We will wait for directions from the state on how to hold admissions and what reservations to apply,” said CD Joshi, commissioner, CET Cell.