Allahabad High Court to Rule on Reservation Controversy in Medical Colleges

Upcoming Decision on Reservation in Medical Colleges

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court is set to deliver a verdict on September 4 regarding a petition challenging the state government's directive to reserve over 79 percent of seats for the reserved categories in government medical colleges located in Ambedkar Nagar, Kannauj, Jalaun, and Saharanpur.

On Tuesday, the Lucknow bench concluded its deliberations on a special appeal filed by the state government, which contested the ruling made by a single-judge bench.

This order was issued by a division bench comprising Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Manjiv Shukla, following a special appeal submitted by the state's medical education department. The state government had engaged a team of senior advocates, including J.N. Mathur and Sanjay Bhasin, along with private lawyers like Syed Mohammad Haider Rizvi, to argue the case, while ten additional advocates general were present to support the reinstatement of the reservation.

The legal team argued that the Supreme Court had previously allowed a reservation quota exceeding fifty percent in the Indira Sawhney case. Earlier, a bench led by Justice Pankaj Bhatia had ruled on a petition filed by NEET candidate Sabra Ahmed last Thursday.

Sabra Ahmed, who scored 523 marks and secured an all-India rank of 29,061 in NEET-2025, contended that several government orders issued between 2010 and 2015 had unlawfully increased the reservation limit.

The petition highlighted that there are 85 seats allocated for the state quota in these colleges, yet only seven seats are being assigned to the unreserved category. This was described as a clear violation of the long-standing principle that reservations should not exceed fifty percent. The state government has challenged the single bench's ruling in a special appeal before a two-judge bench.