Madras HC gives nod for PG medical admissions, disallows incentive marks

Setting aside a single judge’s order which directed the Director General of Health Services and Tamil Nadu State selection committee to not allot seats under the all-India quota as well as the State quota, the Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State to complete the process of selection of medical post graduate degree/diploma course in the medical education and proceed with the admission as indicated in the schedule for the academic year 2018-19.

The vacation division bench comprising Justice V Parthiban and Justice PD Audikesavalu while stating that the categorisation done by the expert committee cannot be said to be in strict conformity with the parameters laid down by the Supreme Court said, “As regards the categorisation of A (1) and A (2), it appears that the Committee had adopted certain material factors like density of post of doctors, vacancy position and health indicators. On such basis, the Committee had recommended that it would fall within the remote and difficult areas in the State.”

“We are, however, of the view that the reasoning which went into the identification of categorisation of A (1) and A (2) cannot per se be held to be completely extraneous or basically erroneous so as to be undeserving for any acceptance in terms of the proviso to sub-clause IV of Regulation 9 of the Regulations, 2000,” the bench added. However, the bench which partly allowed the appeal filed by the State against the order of Single Judge said, “It is made clear that the weightage (incentive) by way of additional marks ought not to be extended to A3 category, which provides additional benefit of weightage in marks for the in-service candidates on the basis of areas of specialisation.”

The matter relates to awarding incentive marks to in-service doctors who are working in rural, difficult areas for the admission in PG medical courses.

The Tamil Nadu government had constituted a six-member committee to identify the difficult and remote areas for awarding incentive marks to the in-service doctors for admission in PG medical courses. The Committee in its report categorised the areas as A, B and C and furnished the same to the government. Thereafter, the government issued two government orders under the above categorization.

Originally this was challenged by some doctors stating that the categorization was not in accordance with the Supreme Court order and not in accordance with the Medical Council of India’s regulations. Single Judge S Vaidyanathan after quashing both the government orders directed the government to redo the categorisation based on only geographical parameters as per the MCI regulations and in accordance with the Supreme Court order.