Mumbai: Maratha seats result in medical admission confusion

According to parents, this relaxation will cause further chaos as students could be handed seats under the reserved category without any document proof substantiating their eligibility for the same

Even as the admission process for the new batch of MBBS has begun, the state has made matters more confusing. It recently announced that caste certificates for Social and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) should not be insisted upon until further instruction.

This grey area has caused confusion and agitation with many questioning why this relaxation has been given to SEBC candidates and not other reserved categories. The newly introduced SEBC reservation which provides reservation for candidates from the Maratha community accounts for as much as 16 per cent of total seats. While it has been accepted by parents who have been opposing it, questions are being raised on the decision to allow relaxation of caste validity certificate for this category.

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The state justified the decision stating that since it is a newly introduced reservation, it is not possible to complete the task in a short deadline due to lack of manpower in the caste certificate and validity department. According to parents, this relaxation will cause further chaos as students could be handed seats under the reserved category without any document proof substantiating their eligibility for the same.

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One parent, Sudha Shenoy, said, "There was no such clause during admissions for post-graduate courses, why now for MBBS? It isn't even that the students are being asked to submit the validity certificate at a later date, there is no time-limit at all as the clause vaguely states that the certificate 'is not to be insisted upon until further instructions'. Dr TP Lahane, Directorate of Medical Education and Research was not available to comment.

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