Quota cauldron

The neverending quota stir is going too far. It will be wrong to say that OBCs and the SC/STs will be able to enjoy the fruits of the bill, if it is passed. And it's unjustified to assume that merit will be sacrificed because of this vote bank politics, as the AIIMS student are claiming.

The reality is a little different.

The 25 pc reservation for the AIIMS students in P-G admission and the 33 pc quota for them is unconstitutional, according to the Supreme Court of India (2001 judgment). The Delhi High Court has found out in a survey that the 33 pc quota for these students has been statistically made so that they can occupy all the 40 seats reserved for them.

The Delhi High Court has come up with new statistics after the five-year-long survey, which shows that the AIIMS in-house students are rather the privileged ones.

In the 1996 P-G admission, it has been seen that an AIIMS students scoring 46. 167 pc (which is the lowest according to AIIMS standard) got admission , while an SC student even though got admission was denied the coveted courses of obstetrics and gynaecology. Evenmore, 12 AIIMS studenst got admission while an SC student, who scored 66.3 pc, was denied a chance.

The SC has agreed with the High Court verdict that institututional quota is bad in law.

Then whose merit is sacrificed?

(Inputs from TOI story : AIIMS docs live in glass houses)