The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response of the Rajasthan government and the Medical Council of India on a plea seeking quashing of a High Court order allowing incentive marks to MBBS doctors who have served in remote areas in NEET this year for PG admission.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and M M Shantanagoudar issued notice to them on the 10 per cent incentive marks seeking their response, while refusing to stay the ongoing counseling process.
The bench, however, made it clear that the admissions to the PG courses for the current session will be subject to the outcome of the petition.
"The counselling process will go on. However, the admission will be subject to the outcome of this petition," it said and fixed April 17 as the next date of hearing.
The plea, filed by Amit Bagra and other doctors, who have MBBS degrees but are not in government service, challenges the April 7 order of a division bench of the Rajasthan High Court by which the state government was allowed to continue with its policy decision to award 10 per cent incentive marks in NEET, 2017 to its doctors serving in hospitals in remote areas.
The larger bench of the high court had vacated the stay granted by a single judge bench on the state government's notification on the issue. The appeal, filed through lawyer Sahir Hussain, alleged that the Rajasthan government decided to give 10 per cent incentive marks to in-service MBBS doctors without even defining remote areas.
It contended that the process of selection for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) 2017 had begun in September 2016 whereas the state government notification came on March 20 this year.
The petitioners are MBBS students of non-service category who appeared in NEET-PG 2017 and cleared it.