NEIL AURELIO NUNES & ORS. versus UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

Citation: [2022] 1 S.C.R. 970 · Decided: 07-01-2022 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD · Disposal: Directions issued
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Judgment (excerpt)

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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 1 S.C.R.
[2022] 1 S.C.R. 970
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NEIL AURELIO NUNES & ORS.
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ORS.
(Writ Petition (C) No. 961 of 2021)
JANUARY 07, 2022
[DR DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD AND
A.S. BOPANNA, JJ.]
Education – Reservation – National Eligibility cum Entrance
Test (NEET)– Notice issued implementing reservation for OBC (non-
creamy layer) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories
in the All India Quota (AIQ) seats – Challenge to – Held: A detailed
interim order on the applicability of the EWS criteria as notified by
OM 2019 for NEET-PG 2021 is necessitated – Validity of the OBC
reservation in the AIQ seats in NEET-PG and NEET-UG is upheld –
Counselling on the basis of NEET-PG 2021 and NEET-UG 2021 be
conducted by giving effect to the reservation as provided by the
notice, including the 27 per cent reservation for the OBC category
and 10 per cent reservation for EWS category in the AIQ seats –
Further, the recommendation of Pandey Committee (formed by Union
Government to review the criteria for identifying EWS) that the
criteria stipulated in OM 2019 be used for 2021-2022 is accepted
– The criteria for the determination of the EWS notified by OM
2019be used for identifying the EWS category for candidates who
appeared for NEET-PG 2021 and NEET-UG 2021 examinations –
Validity of the criteria determined by the Pandey Committee for
identification of EWS would prospectively for the future be subject
to the final result of the petitions – Petitions be listed for final hearing
on the validity of the EWS criteria as recommended by the Pandey
Committee.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (C) No. 961
of 2021.
(UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA)
With
Writ Petition (C) Nos. 967, 1002, 1021 and 1105 of 2021.
Tushar Mehta, SG, K. M. Nataraj, Vikramjit Banerjee, ASGs, V.
Krishnamurthy AAG, Arvind Datar, Shyam Divan, P. Wilson, A.
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Mariarputham, Anand Grover, Sr. Advs., Dr. Charu Mathur, Sanjay Kumar
Dubey, Rahul Unnikrishnan, Malak Bhatt, Vivek Singh, Shrirang
Choudhary, Subodh S. Patil, Chaitanya Deshpande, Ms. Supriya Patil,
Kanu Agrawal, Apoorv Kurup, Vatsal Joshi, Shailesh Madiyal, Sugosh
Subramaniam, Amrish Kumar, Ms. Archana Pathak Dave, Ms.
Swarupama Chaturvedi, Vikas Bansal, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Gaurav
Sharma, Kirtiman Singh, Waize Ali Noor, Dhawal Mohan, Prateek Bhatia,
Ms. Srirupa Nag, Taha Yasin, R. Nedumaran, Ms. Chandra Priya C.,
Mukul Lather, Dr. Joseph Aristotle S., V. K. Biju, Ms. Ria Sachthey,
Chetanya Singh, Amlendu Kumar Akhilesh Kumar Jha, Shaji George,
Ms. Vijay Laxmi, Devashish Bharuka, Ms. Sarvshree, Justine George,
Apporve Karol, Mithu Jain, Kartikay Trivedi, Shashank Ratnoo, Vikram
Hegde, Shantanu Lakhotia, Kumar Prashant, Ms. Vanya Gupta, Avnish
Dave, Parmod Kumar Vishnoi, Varun Thakur, Brajesh Pandey, Varinder
Kumar Sharma, Advs. for the appearing parties.
The Order of the Court was passed by
DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, J.
1. There is a challenge, in this batch of petitions under Article 32
of the Constitution, to a notice which was issued by the Directorate
General of Health Services in the Union Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare on 29 July 2021. The notice implements a 27 per cent reservation
for Other Backward Classes1 (non-creamy layer) and a 10 per cent
reservation for the Economically Weaker Section,2 while filling up 15
per cent undergraduate and 50 per cent post-graduate3 All India Quota4
seats in pursuance of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test5. The
notice takes effect from the current admission year, 2021-2022. The
petitioners are doctors who appeared in the NEET- PG 2021 examination.
2.  The petitions were instituted on 24 August 2021 to challenge
the validity of the notice dated 29 July 2021. Notice was issued by this
Court on 6 September 2021. The NEET-PG results were announced on
28 September 2021. Arguments were heard in part on 7 October 2021.
It was argued that there cannot be any reservation for the OBC and
1 “OBC”
2 “EWS”
3 “PG”
4 “AIQ”
5 “NEET”
NEIL AURELIO NUNES v. UNION OF INDIA
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 1 S.C.R.
EWS category in the AIQ seats in NEET-PG and that the criteria for
the determination of the EWS category notified by O.M 36039/1/20196
was unconstitutional. By an order dated 21 October 2021, this Court
sought clarifications in regard to the criteria provided by the OM of 2019
of using Rs 8 lakhs as the cut - off income limit for identifying EWS.
Two weeks
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