New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker section (EWS) amongst the general category could not be enforced at the expense of others without creating a corresponding number of seats going under the EWS quota.

A vacation bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose said this while declaring inoperative March 7, 2019, notification by the medical education and drugs department of Maharashtra extending 10% reservation for the EWS in admissions to post-graduate medical courses for the current academic year.

Noting that the process for admitting students in the post- graduate medical course had commenced on November 2, 2018, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that the Maharashtra government “could not have changed the rules of the game when the admission process was on. Any reservation at this stage would be at the cost of others.”

Holding that the state government may act taking recourse to the enabling provisions introduced in Article 16(6) by 103rd amendment to constitution, the court said, “unless additional seats are sanctioned by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the existing seats cannot be subjected to the provisions of the aforesaid Constitutional amendment by issuing appropriate notifications, as has been done in this case.”

Describing its views as “tentative view”, the court declared that March 7, 2019, notification will have “no application” to the ongoing admissions to post-graduate medical courses.

However, the court also said, “Needless to say, it is always open for the MCI to sanction additional seats, if deemed fit”.

The court said that the admission process had commenced on November 2, 2018, and the constitution’s 103rd amendment incorporating an enabling provision for 10% EWS reservation was passed on January 12, 2019.