All India Quota (AIQ) in medical and dental examinations

After some legal wrangling, the 27% OBC and 10% EWS reservation has been approved for AIQ in NEET.

 All India Quota (AIQ) in medical and dental examinations

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• The story: In July 2021, the Union Health Ministry announced its decision to implement 27% reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) scheme for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical/dental courses from 2021-22 onwards.
• All India Quota (AIQ) Scheme: The AIQ was introduced in 1986 under the directions of the Supreme Court (SC) to provide for domicile-free merit-based opportunities to students from any State to aspire to study in a medical college located in another State.

1. It comprises 15% of UG seats and 50% of PG seats in government medical colleges.
2. Remaining chunk of the seats in state medical/dental colleges is reserved for students domiciled in their respective states.
3. In January, 2007, in "Abhay Nath vs. University of Delhi and Others", the SC directed that reservation of 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes be introduced in the AIQ. Until 2007, no reservation was implemented within the All India Quota for medical admission.
4. When the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act became effective in 2007, providing for uniform 27% reservation to the OBCs, the scheme was implemented in all the Central Educational Institutions. However, this was not extended to the AIQ seats of State medical and dental colleges.
5. The 10% EWS quota under the Constitution (One Hundred And Third Amendment) Act, 2019, too, has been implemented in central educational Institutions, but not in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) AIQ for state institutions. After this decision, the Reservation for the OBC and EWS categories within the AIQ will be offered in medical colleges from the current academic year. This decision will help thousands of students under the given categories.

• NEET: The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) is the entrance examination for entry to all undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses in India. Until 2016, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) was the national-level entrance examination for medical colleges, while state governments used to hold separate entrance tests for seats that were not contested at an all-India level.
• Uniformity: In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the newly inserted section 10-D of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 which provides for a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate level and postgraduate level in Hindi, English and various other languages. Many states opposed it tooth and nail.  The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 stands repealed after it was replaced by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 that came into existence on 8th August 2019.
• Summary: This reservation will be another milestone in brining social justice to the vast majority of under-privileged in India.

 

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