The Bombay High Court on Fridaydirected the Maharashtra government to explain why number of seats in the open category for post-graduate medical courses decreased in the year 2020-21.Justice N J Jamadar was hearing a plea filed by one Dr Pushkar Dongare raising concerns on allocation of seat matrix for admission to post-graduate medical courses.As per the plea, for the year 2019, there were 972 post-graduate seats in the state, of which 330 were in the open category.With the introduction of 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category last year, the government claimed seats for post-graduate medical courses would be increased by 25 per cent.The petitioner's advocate Rajeev Panday told the court that for the year 2020-21, the number of seats was shown as 1,168 but the seats in the open category was only 327, which is three seats lesser than the previous year.The bench then directed the government to file an affidavit explaining why the total number of post-graduate seats for the open category for the year 2020-21 was less than those for the year 2019 despite the claim of 25 per cent increase in seats.The court said the selection process may proceed but the same shall be subject to the outcome of any order passed in this petition.The court posted the matter for further hearing on May 19.
