No 50 percent quota for in-service doctors in post-graduate diploma courses, rules HC

Justice S Vaidyanathan, on citing the Supreme Court that when admissions are sought by in-service candidates for PG courses under the all India quota, the selection should be purely on merit and weightage marks cannot be linked to NEET marks, said, “If a candidate wants to compete with others on all India basis, it shall be based on NEET marks alone and that Regulation 9(IV) and 9(VIII) of the Post Graduate Education Regulations, 2000, cannot be applied to All India — Quota Counselling and that it applies only to in-service candidates in the respective state governments.” 

The order was based on a plea moved by in-service doctors seeking that the authorities comply with the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, by awarding weightage marks for the service rendered in remote/difficult areas and for reserving 50% of seats in Post Graduate Diploma Courses for eligible medical officers in government service, in respect of all India quota seats, based on NEET PG 2018. 

However, justice Vaidyanathan in his order also held, “The insistence of NEET examination as per the Medical Council of India and by the Supreme Court of India is mainly on the context that if doctors fail to perform a surgery correctly, the second surgery is nothing but a post-mortem. In a profession like law, in certain courts, there are intra-court appeals and in certain cases, the apex court can correct the errors. Whereas, if a doctor performs a wrong surgery and the patient dies, certainly the loss cannot be set right to his/her family.”