Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday dismissed the petitions filed challenging the GO issued by the state govt fixing the in-service quota in postgraduate (PG) medical seats.
The HC stated that the courts can only interfere with the policy decisions of the govt when such policies are unilateral and arbitrary.
Observing that no case was made out by the petitioners to suggest that the GO is arbitrary, the high court dismissed the petitions.
The state govt on July 20 issued GO 85, fixing 15% PG clinical seats and 30% PG non-clinical seats for those who worked in tribal, rural, and urban health centres under the in-service category.
Some students moved the high court, contending that the GO was issued after notifying the seats, which is nothing but changing the rules after the game started. They argued that the quota used to be 30% and 50% for clinical and non-clinical respectively, and any change after the issuance of notification is arbitrary and illegal.
Arguing on behalf of the state govt, advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas said that the state govt issued the GO fixing the quota on July 20, and the notification for admissions was issued on September 27.
He stated that the notification for admission was not issued prior to the fixing of the quota, as alleged in the petitions.
Considering the arguments on both sides, the HC bench, headed by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R Raghunandan Rao, dismissed the petitions.
