Delhi High Court Monday asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to keep a seat till the disposal of a plea seeking direction for reservation for OBC category in Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) course commencing July.
"Respondent (AIIMS) shall keep one seat available till a further order in the case," Justice Jayant Nath said, and posted the matter for July 16 for arguments.
The court's direction came on a plea filed by Anusar Gupta, a first rank holder in OBC category in post-graduate MDS course, who was denied admission to an OBC seat in the institute.
Filing the plea, Gupta said there are five seats in MDS course but not a single one was reserved for OBC category students, which is illegal, as there is a provision of 27 percent reservation of seats for OBC candidates in every institute.
The plea said: "Petitioner has been denied admission on the OBC category, due to wrong and illegal calculation/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."
The lawyer appearing for Gupta told the court that the institute had failed to adhere to allocation of 27 percent total seats for OBC category candidates, which is contrary to settled law.
More From This Section
It was further submitted that AIIMS has wrongfully combined MD/MS seats with MDS seats, despite the two courses belonging to completely different category, as MD/MS degrees are for medical courses, while MDS degree is for dental course.
It said all the 27 percent seats reserved for OBC category candidates has been given to MD/MS courses and none to MDS 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, which is illegal and has caused grave injustice to the petitioner (Gupta) and his career," the plea said.
The petitioner sought direction for AIIMS to reserve 27 percent seats out of total seats for OBC category in MDS course and allow him to attend the counselling on June 12, 2013 for the admission on the OBC seat.
The petition further sought to declare the current allocation of seats for OBC category in MD/MS and MDS courses as illegal.