AIIMS seat allocation for categories in MDS course is fair: HC

New Delhi: Setting aside the order of its  single judge bench, the Delhi High Court has said the formula adopted by AIIMS for seat allocation for categories in Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) course, which commenced from July this year, is just and fair. A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Vibhu Bkhru said “…. We set aside the finding of the single judge that the system adopted by the respondent(AIIMS) for providing reservation is unjust and unfair.” The single judge on July 2 had held that AIIMS’ seat allocation formula for categories in MDS course was not fair but had declined to interfere with this year’s course. [caption id=“attachment_1107871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AIIMS campus. AFP image[/caption] The bench, however, has upheld the single judge’s order asking the Centre and AIIMS to allocate seats as per the provisions in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act in future. The bench also clarified that till their final decision, the medical body should continue with present formula of allocating. The court order came on two separate pleas, one by AIIMS against single judge order and another by Anusar Gupta, first rank holder in OBC category in post-graduate MDS course but was denied admission on OBC seat in the institute for this year’s course, on the ground that the single judge had not granted any relief to him. Gupta in his plea said,“he has been denied admission in OBC category due to wrong and illegal calculation or allocation of seats for OBC candidates, wherein not even a single seat has been reserved for OBC candidates (27 percent reservation) despite having a total of five seats.” Gupta’s counsel had earlier argued that AIIMS has failed to adhere to allocation of 27 percent total seats for OBC category candidates, which is contrary to the settled law. The plea said AIIMS has “wrongfully” combined MD/MS seats with MDS seats though the two courses belong to completely different categories. MD/MS degrees are for medical courses whereas MDS degree is for dental course. “AIIMS has combined all the 121 seats (for MD/MS courses and MDS course) and allocated the 27 percent reservation i.e. 33 seats to MD/MS courses and not even a single seat to MDS course” the plea said. PTI