New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday made it clear that Tamil Nadu government cannot restrict the candidates only domiciled or had taken MBBS in the state for admission to super speciality courses in medicine for the academic year 2016-17. A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and C. Nagappan in its order directed the state government to allow candidates across the country to apply for admission for the test to be held on July 10. The Bench told senior counsel Rakesh Diwedi and counsel B. Balaji that if the examination is going to be confined only to domiciled candidates or those who studied medicine in Tamil Nadu, it will stay the July 10 test. The Bench then asked the state to extend the time for receipt of applications slated for July 2 by three days and go ahead with the scheduled test. It wanted the government to give wide publicity to this order so that more candidates from across the country could apply and write the test.
The Bench passed this order on an application filed by Dr. Sandeep Sadhashiva Rao Kansurkar, who in 2015 had challenged the reservation in super speciality courses in the State of Tamil Nadu based on domicile. He said the fallout of the restriction is that candidates having the domicile in Tamil Nadu can appear in other states’ entrance examination without any restriction and compete with other candidates.
He said the said situation creates a clear disparity, and further a state of inequality has been allowed to reign in the state. It was urged in the writ petition that the restraint imposed by Tamil Nadu amounts to reservation in respect of the post-graduate level; and as far as the super-specialty courses are concerned, the question of reservation based on residence or institutional preference is totally impermissible, for merit cannot be compromised by making reservation on the consideration, like residential requirement, as that would be absolutely against the national interest and plays foul of equality clause engrafted in the Constitution. There cannot be reservation of any kind in respect of post-graduate or super specialty courses regard being had to the law laid down by many a judgment of this court.
