Mumbai: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell to prepare a revised merit list and allow 116 in-service quota candidates to resubmit their college preferences for admission to postgraduate (PG) medical courses.
The court instructed the CET Cell to publish a fresh schedule and merit list for the first Centralised Admission Process (CAP) round for in-service doctors under the 20% state quota. It directed that the revised process be completed by December 15 to ensure that the second CAP round, scheduled to begin on December 16, proceeds without delay.
In 2022, the Maharashtra government had reserved 20% of PG medical seats for in-service doctors working in government establishments, aiming to ensure specialized medical care in public health facilities, particularly in rural and tribal areas.
However, the policy of awarding incentive marks for service in rural, hilly, and Naxalite-affected areas was not implemented this year. Petitioners Ashishkumar Patni, Mahesh Gurav, and others challenged this omission, citing it as arbitrary and unjust.
Advocate for the petitioners, Pradnya Talekar, argued that the introduction of the percentile system in entrance exams this year left authorities unprepared to incorporate incentive marks into the percentile scores published by the National Board of Examinations of Medical Sciences (NBEMS). Consequently, a merit list without incentive marks was finalized for the first CAP round, disadvantaging in-service candidates.
The court noted that while the correct merit list, including incentive marks, had since been prepared, the issue arose because the first CAP round had already concluded. The petitioners feared that they would lose their rightful opportunities if admissions proceeded without rectifying the merit list.
The CET Cell proposed reopening the first CAP round for the 116 in-service candidates under the revised merit list. Accepting this proposal, the court directed the CET Cell to allow all eligible in-service candidates to resubmit their preferences.
“Though only 4 out of 116 candidates are before the court, under exceptional circumstances, we are passing the order. Their interest is also taken care of,” the bench stated, ensuring a fair and timely admission process while allowing the pleas.
