SC to hear EWS quota plea for NEET-PG 2022 on August 2

Supreme Court will hear a plea against the 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category in government institutes for admissions through NEET-PG 2022 on August 2. The petition was filed by certain NEET PG aspirants last year, challenging the EWS reservation in the All India Quota (AIQ) for the NEET PG counselling. The aggrieved students claim that the move is disadvantageous to “meritorious” students. 

The top court had asked the government to explain why the criteria for the EWS category were set at the same margin as the



creamy layer of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, at an annual family income of not more than Rs 8 lakh.  

​​The Centre had formed a three-member committee to revisit the criteria, which included Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to the Centre. The committee, in its report had recommended that the current limit of family income of Rs 8 lakh to qualify as avail the EWS reservation benefit be retained, calling it “reasonable for the purpose”.