Ahemdabad: The discussion regarding reservation has once again taken the spotlight after the Gujarat High Court issued a notice in response to a petition was filed in Gujarat seeking 5% reservation for Persons with Disability (PwD).
According to a recent report by Mirror, on Thursday, 14th October 2021, the Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the state government and other concerned bodies with regard to a petition filed by a young medical aspirant. The petition requested a 5% reservation quota for Persons with Disability in self-financed medical colleges run by the Gujarat Medical Education & Research Society (GMERS). The plea also sought relief that PwD be admitted to the medical college nearest to their residence.
The aspirant, through her petition, pointed out that the PwD only had the option of seeking an admission in the 6 government medical colleges in Gujarat. The eight colleges under GMERS were being being treated as self-financed colleges though they operated using government funds. The government grants are shown as loans by these colleges.
The plea went on to point out that the eight GMERS colleges, as also the NHL (Ahmedabad), LG (Ahmedabad) and SMIMER (Surat) that are now run by government trusts, and 15 other self-financed colleges were denying PwD the benefit of 5% reservation which is unfair, as these institutes were set up to ensure that Gujarat-based students don't have to resort to going away from their homes to seek a medical education, reports Mirror
It may be noted that as per Colleges or Institution (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) Act, 2007, the 8 GMERS and three government trust operated medical colleges should be considered as government-aided colleges to extend the benefit of quota to the PwD.
The plea said denial of quota in medical courses in government colleges is discriminatory as engineering, pharmacy and architecture colleges do provide 5% reservation irrespective of whether they are government-funded, grant-in-aid (partly government-funded) or self-financed.
The plea said due to the discrimination the petitioner, who is awaiting results for the NEET (UG), would be deprived of admission in the GMERS or other self-financed medical colleges. The next hearing of the matter will be conducted on October 27.