Supreme Court to listen to pleas challenging Rs 8 lakh income limit for EWS on August 2

Medical aspirants had filed a batch of petitions last year challenging the ten EWS reservation within the All India Quota (AIQ) for the NEET PG counselling.

The Supreme Court will hear the pleas challenging the validity of the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) criteria of Rs 8 lakh annual income limit for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test postgraduate (NEET PG 2022) admissions on August 2, 2022.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and PS Narasimha said earlier that the matter must be heard by a mix of three-judge bench.

On January 7, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 27% OBC quota in both NEET PG, NEET UG 2021 and allowed resumption of medical counselling for NEET-PG admissions for the year 2021-22.

“Counselling on the idea of NEET PG 2021 and Neet UG 2021 shall be conducted by giving effect to the resolution as provided by the notice dated 29 July 2021 including the 27% reservation for OBC category and 10% reservation for EWS category within the all India quota seats,” the Supreme Court judgment read.

The Centre in January informed the Supreme Court that it's decided to retain the present reservation policy of EWS in NEET AIQ quota. 

The central government expert committee said excluding the EWS reservation within the middle of the method will end in complications.

The top court had scheduled the ultimate hearing in March this year, which later got postponed to July because of the summer vacation.