Hyderabad: In a major setback to candidates seeking admission to professional courses under the sports quota, the Hyderabad High Court on Friday directed the Telangana government not to extend the benefit of reservation under the sports quota for the current academic year.
The bench felt that providing a quota for sports persons in employment may encourage those persons to pursue a career in sports with an assured income. But providing quota for sports persons for admission to professional courses virtually terminates their career in sports as the professional courses demand a high degree of focus and quality time from the students.
When the bench questioned the counsel for the government as to whether the sports quota for admission to medical courses has produced a single gold medallist in an international event, he replied in the negative.
The bench also noted, “We are conscious of the fact that the very grant of reservation for sports persons is not under challenge before us. But if we feel constrained technically on that score, the choice left for us is between the devil and the deep sea."
The bench found that games like Modern Pentathlon, Lawn Bowls, Wushu and Sepak Takraw, included in the GO, will pave the way for unscrupulous persons to take such games at national level, where there will be no competition and such persons will have a cakewalk in admissions through this short cut.
The bench said “The kind of cases that have come up before this bench in the past academic years shows that the parents who are mad after making their children doctors specifically train children in certain strange categories of sports, solely with object of getting a certificate at national level without any serious competitions.”
