Summary
The Supreme Court held that Madhya Pradesh wrongly compartmentalised the 5% Government School horizontal quota for MBBS admissions by vertical category and barred meritorious SC, OBC and EWS government-school candidates from the unreserved Government School seats, which then went to less meritorious candidates or were released to the open category. Applying Saurav Yadav and S. Krishna Sradha, it directed that the appellants be admitted in the 2024-25 session.
Issues
- Whether, in a horizontal Government School quota, reserved-category candidates entitled on their own merit to unreserved Government School (UR-GS) seats can be confined to the GS seats of their vertical category.
- What relief should be given to meritorious candidates wrongly denied admission when the admission process for that academic session is over.
Provisions considered
- Rule 2 and Schedule-2, as amended on 10.05.2023 (Government School quota), Madhya Pradesh Education Admission Rules, 2018The amendment reserved 5% of seats for government school students; the State sub-classified this horizontal quota into UR-GS, SC-GS, ST-GS, OBC-GS and EWS-GS and transferred 77 of 89 unfilled UR-GS seats to the open category. The Court held that this method of applying the quota, which barred meritorious reserved-category candidates from UR-GS seats, was unsustainable. (¶¶ 4.3, 4.6, 9, 16, 17)
Held
- A candidate from a vertical reservation category who earns selection in the open or general category on merit is to be selected against the general category and not counted against the reserved quota, as settled in Indra Sawhney, R.K. Sabharwal and Ritesh R. Sah. (¶ 10)
- Following Saurav Yadav, reiterated in Sadhana Singh Dangi, the same principle applies to horizontal reservation: a meritorious reserved-category candidate entitled on merit to the general segment of a horizontal quota must be given a seat there and cannot be counted against the horizontal seats meant for the vertical category; reservations are not rigid slots that shut off merit, and the open category is open to all on merit alone. (¶¶ 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
- The State's method of splitting the Government School quota by vertical category and preventing meritorious SC/ST/OBC/EWS government-school candidates from moving into UR-GS seats was unsustainable; the appellants, who had more marks than many candidates admitted to UR-GS seats, should have been admitted against those seats, especially as many UR-GS seats went unfilled and were transferred to the general category. (¶¶ 16, 17, 20)
- Since the 2023-24 admission process was over, the Court moulded the relief under S. Krishna Sradha and directed admission in the next academic session for meritorious candidates who had approached the court promptly and were denied admission through the authorities' error, against the seven seats it had ordered kept vacant. (¶¶ 18, 19, 20)
Result
Appeals allowed; High Court judgments of 22/12/2023 (Indore) and 12/01/2024 (Gwalior) set aside; respondents directed to admit the appellants to the MBBS course in the 2024-25 session against UR-GS seats; no costs.