SHILLONG: Meghalaya got back ten medical seats earlier denied by Assam, thanks to the intervention of the Supreme Court.
Ending the stalemate over the allotment of medical seats, the Court in an interim order on Friday said that keeping in view the interest of Meghalaya, ten seats out of twenty-seven seats should be allocated to it.
According to the order, after hearing both the parties, while Meghalaya was allotted ten seats, Assam was allocated seventeen seats out of twenty-seven seats.
Following the order, Health Minister Roshan Warjri met the students and their parents on Saturday.
“We are glad that the order is favourable to us”, she said.
Earlier, the Court said that in the course of hearing, it was apprised that
Meghalaya had been allocated ten seats since 1976 and the same was being done in pursuance of the agreement between the two States and it was in vogue till last year.
The Court said that the states of Assam and Meghalaya will conduct counseling in an objective and appropriate manner so that the merit should be the exclusive criterion from among the NEET qualified candidates.
According to the Court, any candidate who is not qualified in NEET, will not be entitled for consideration.
The Court added that if the students qualify in accordance with the merit list drawn up by the competent authority, they should be called for counseling and seats should be accordingly filled up.
“Barring twenty-seven seats, no counseling shall take place in respect of any other seats and the counseling should be completed within ten days”, the order said.
The Court also made it clear that this is purely an interim arrangement and the controversy that has been raised in the special leave petition and the original suit will be decided on their own merits and the matter will now come up for hearing in the second week of January next.
The case was filed by Meghalaya against Assam for denying seats based on the communication by the Director, Medical Education, Assam instructing the Principals of Guwahati Medical College, Assam Medical College, Dibrugarh, and Medical College Silchar, not to admit any students under central pool.
The intervention of the Court was sought for restraining Assam from abolishing ten seats earmarked for nominated candidates of Meghalaya
