The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said the formula adopted by AIIMS for allocation of seats to various categories in the Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) course, which commenced from July this year, is "not just and fair" as no seat was reserved for OBC category.
The court, however, declined to interfere with this year’s course and asked the Centre and AIIMS to allocate seats as per the provisions in the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act in future.
"The formula adopted by respondent 1 (AIIMS) is not in conformity with the legislative mandate since sometimes the reserved category candidates are getting more than their due shares and sometimes they are not getting the share which ought to have come to them….," Justice V K Jain said.
The court order came while disposing of a plea filed by one Anusar Gupta, first rank holder in OBC category in post- graduate MDS course, who was refused admission on OBC seat in the institute for this year’s course.
"There is no legal sanctity behind the formula adopted by AIIMS for allocation of seats amongst various categories in the MDS course. Considering the meagre number of seats available in various specialities, the legislative mandate cannot be achieved in case the formula adopted by respondent No1 is allowed to continue.
Whether the legislative mandate can be achieved by treating all the seats in MDS, irrespective of the speciality, as one branch of study and providing reservation accordingly in terms of Section 3 of the Act, is for the respondent No 1 to examine. But the formula applied by it is neither legal nor just and fair," the court also said.
