Medical admission : Madras HC upholds 7.5% internal reservation

The Madras High Court has ruled that the 7.5 percent internal quota law will apply to government school students in medical studies.

The previous AIADMK government had enacted a law to provide a 7.5 percent internal quota for government school students in medical studies. Cases have been filed in the Madras High Court challenging the law and seeking the same quota for government-aided and private school students.

 The cases were heard by Chief Justice of the HC Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice Bharata Chakravarthy. At that time, the Chief Justice questioned whether the petitioner's contention was that the 69 percent quota already in force in Tamil Nadu would affect the eligible students in the general category by giving 7.5 percent of the remaining 31 percent quota to the government school students.

Responding to this, Kapil Sibal, a senior advocate for the Tamil Nadu Government, said, "Out of the 31 percent allocation for the general category, 7.5 per cent has not been allocated. Only 7.5 percent of the total seats have been allocated internally. 

Hence there will be no impact on eligible general category students. Private school students can go to training centres and receive coaching. But the poor students studying in government schools could not go to training centres and hence the law was introduced.”

In this case, the verdict was pronounced today. The verdict handed down by the judges read, “7.5 percent internal quota law goes to government school students in medical studies. The Government of Tamil Nadu has the power to provide internal reservations. 

The 7.5% internal allocation should be reviewed after 5 years. There is no problem for students studying in the 7.5% internal quota as per the High Court order. Therefore, we dismiss the petition seeking a 7.5% internal quota for government-aided and private school students.”