Telangana High Court on Monday dismissed a batch of writ petitions challenging the Telangana government’s decision to reserve 100% seats in MBBS/BDS courses for ‘locals’ (domicile candidates) in ‘competent authority quota’ in medical colleges established in the State after June 2, 2014.
A Bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice N.V. Shravan Kumar, pronouncing the verdict after hearing the pleas filed by students from different parts of Andhra Pradesh, said the decision of the Supreme Court in Pradeep Jain case would not apply to the State of Telangana. The Bench noted that the decisions of the apex court in the matters of Chebrolu Leela Prasad Rao and Satyajit Kumar “are authorities for the proposition that 100% reservation in the matter of employment is violative of the constitutional guarantee contained in Article 16 of the Constitution of India”.
The Bench, however, made it clear that the present batch of pleas questioning reservation in MBBS/BDS seats “is not a case of 100% reservation as only 85% of competent authority quota seats in respect of educational institutions which have been set up after formation of the State, i.e., June 2, 2014 had been reserved for the candidates of State of Telangana”. The Bench said reservation to the extent of 100% for local candidates in Telangana by amending Telangana Medical & Dental Colleges Admission (Admission into MBBS & BDS Courses) Rules, 2017 as contended by the petitioners “had not been provided”.
