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The Centre on Tuesday, 4 January, again urged the Supreme Court to urgently hear the matter connected with the validity of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota in postgraduate courses in medical colleges.
The Chief Justice told Mehta that he has to constitute a special bench. Justice Ramana said: "Let me see tomorrow. This entire week is a miscellaneous week..." Mehta said the resident doctors are protesting and their concerns are genuine.
The bench said: "If it is a three-judge bench matter, then it will be listed before a three-judge bench tomorrow."
On Monday, 3 January, Mehta asked a bench led by Justice D Y Chandrachud to advance the hearing on the matter to Tuesday from 6 January.
The Centre has told the top court that Rs 8 lakh income criterion for determining the EWS is much more stringent than the one for the OBC creamy layer.
The panel added, "Secondly, in case of deciding the OBC creamy layer, income from salaries, agriculture, and traditional artisanal professions are excluded from the consideration whereas the Rs 8 lakh criteria for EWS includes that from all sources, including farming. So, despite being the same cut-off number, their composition is different and hence, the two cannot be equated."
The panel comprised Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary; Prof V K Malhotra of ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic advisor to the government. The panel was set up on 30 November.
On 25 November, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it has taken a decision to revisit the criteria of Rs 8 lakh annual income limit for EWS criteria and added that a fresh decision will be taken within a period of 4 weeks.
On 21 October, the Supreme Court had questioned the Centre over adopting the criteria of OBC creamy layer of Rs 8 lakh annual income for granting reservations under the EWS, despite the latter not suffering from social and educational backwardness.
In an affidavit, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that its decision to fix Rs 8 Lakh income limit for OBC and EWS is not arbitrary in the NEET All India Quota, and it was finalised after considering diverse economic factors in different states.
The top court is hearing writ petitions challenging 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 10 percent reservation for EWS in all-India Quota seats for postgraduate medical courses. As many as 15 percent seats in MBBS and 50 percent seats in MS and MD courses are filled through All India Quota from the candidates selected through NEET.
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