Hold counselling for super speciality med seats for 10 days: HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court ordered the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) to hold counselling for 50 per cent of seats reserved for the government in-service candidates for super speciality medical courses for 10 days.

Justice R Suresh Kumar passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by a batch of petitions filed by in-service candidates who applied for the super speciality medical seats.

The petitioners challenged the notification of the Union Government’s Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to fill all the seats without any specific reservation for the in-service candidates.

The petitioners also wanted to implement the GO issued by the state government in 2020 to allot 50 per cent of seats for the government in-service candidates for the super speciality seats for the academic year 2022-2023.

However, the DGHS standing counsel submitted that the Supreme Court passed an order last year allowing the state to reserve 50 per cent of the seats for in-service candidates only for the 2021-2022 academic year and the same is not applicable to this year.

Advocate General R Shunmugasundaram submitted that since the Apex Court did not quash the GO of the state government, it will apply to counselling for all the years.

Recording the submissions, the judge observed that since the SC made a decision in this matter, the petitioners or the government has to approach and get clarification from the top court about the validity of its order to know whether the 50 per cent reservation for in-service candidates will be applicable for this year.

The judge gave 10 days’ time to the petitioner and the government to get clearance from the SC and stalled the counselling for 10 days.