After almost a year-long delay, NEET-PG counseling has been allowed by the Supreme Court of India in the 'national interest'. The decision offers hope of bringing respite to both the resident doctors and the PG students. While students are saved from another wasted year, resident doctors can now expect reduced work burden in face of the raging third wave of the pandemic. The root issue of using Rs 8 lakh criteria for determining the EWS quota, however, remains unresolved and the Supreme Court will decide on the matter in March this year. The contention broke out in July 2021 after the Central government announced 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) students in the All-India Quota (AIQ) for UG and PG medical students from the 2021-22 session onwards. Following the judgment, a petition was filed against the Centre in the Supreme Court, challenging the criterion used for arriving at the Rs 8-lakh threshold for the EWS reservations in the AIQ. After the Supreme Court came down strictly upon the Centre to explain the criteria used for determining EWS threshold in November last year, the Centre asked for a four-week window time to revisit the criteria and the next hearing was scheduled for January 6. Amid all this, frustrated resident doctors have been protesting against the government for the delay in NEET-PG counseling. The protests even took a violent turn at several instances. Resident doctors ended the protest on December 31 last year only after the government assured to address their grievances. The concerns of resident doctors are understandable. Owing to the delay in NEET-PG counseling halting the recruitment of fresh batch of PG medical students, the second and final year doctors had to cover the extra mile for almost a year in spearheading the fight against the pandemic. To term it merely as a delay would in fact be a gross underestimation of the agony that these doctors might have been through. Working tirelessly without breaks in an environment where death and misery are dominating phenomena, and personal and familial risks are paramount, has indeed been a breaking journey for the medical fraternity. This certainly was not a befitting reward to the warriors who stood at the forefront of the most severe catastrophe the present generation of humans has been witnessing. Add to this the plight of lower grade medical workers like nurses who stand at even greater risk and lack social protection. It is in this light that the Supreme Court judgment was urgent and holds immense significance. But it is shocking that the Centre could yet not justify the Rs 8-lakh criteria for the EWS quota. This stimulates the conviction that only half the battle is won by tens of thousands of PG students as the 10 per cent EWS quota applies for the current batch — without appropriate justification from the government. Though the Ajay Bhushan Pandey committee has recommended the continuance of the Rs 8-lakh criteria, more reading may be required in this matter. The All-India quota came as a revolutionary step in 1986. It allowed the medical students of one state to study in the medical colleges of other states on the basis of merit. Two decades later, in 2007, reservations were introduced in AIQ for the Scheduled Castes (15 per cent) and the Scheduled Tribes (7.5 per cent) following a Supreme Court judgment. In the same year, when the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act came into force, it meant the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes would automatically follow in Central medical institutions as well. And then the EWS category finally came into the landscape of reservation in January 2019 through the 103rd Constitutional amendment that allowed 10 per cent reservations to candidates belonging to economically weaker sections. What the July 29 order of the government did was to essentially extend the EWS and OBC reservation to induction of medical students across all states. Emboldened by the Ajay Bhushan Committee findings, the government appears to be firm on continuance of Rs 8 lakh criteria for EWS categorization. The quota has come under heavy criticism for being a political gimmick to attract general castes. Irrespective of the merit of EWS quota, it is an unfortunate thing that retrograde politics around caste is only intensifying rather than dying down. This is not a welcome direction for the aspiring India. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will come out with a rational judgment in March this year, which could ensure that the interest of none of the sections of students is compromised.