The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to follow in letter and spirit a Division Bench judgment on the distribution of MBBS and BDS seats allotted to wards of serving and retired defence personnel in admissions.
Disposing of the petitions filed by two MBBS/BDS course aspirants, Justice C.V. Karthikeyan referred to the judgment passed in 2021 that said at least 1% of the medical seats should go to the wards of serving defence personnel.
The petitioners, A. Priyanka from Thoothukudi district and K. Sukisha of Virudhunagar district, sought a direction to the authorities to consider them for admission to MBBS/BDS course for this academic year.
The judge took cognisance of the State’s submission that the total seats allotted under the quota for wards of defence personnel was increased to 11 from six (10 Medical seats and one BDS seat).
A Government Order issued in January 2022 included wards of serving defence personnel in the priority list as it was contended that wards of ex-servicemen were placed higher on the list.
In 2021, the High Court said it expected that at least 1% of medical seats would be made available to the wards of serving defence personnel.
Revisit priority list
The Division Bench, in its judgment, had directed the Central government to revisit the priority list giving equal importance to all persons by distributing the available seats to benefit all sections.
The court took note of a notification issued in 1979 to distribute the six medical seats reserved for the wards of defence personnel equally among the children of deceased servicemen, ex-servicemen and also the serving defence personnel.
