In order to serve the cause of public health, admission of in-service doctors working in remote government hospitals for highly specialized medical courses should be given positive consideration, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday.
Giving notice on the petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Association of Medical Officers seeking restraint on the Tamil Nadu government from transferring 151 super specialty seats in the state to All India Quota (AIQ), the court said government doctors are serving the cause of public health better than doctors in private hospitals and it becomes important to equip them with super specialty skills to ensure that more benefits reach the general public.
“We are concerned with public health, whatever the state,” a bench of Justices P V Nagrathna and Joymalia Bagchi said, as the petitioner association represented by senior advocate P Wilson pointed out that there were 151 in-service medical seats lying vacant in colleges within Tamil Nadu and they should not be handed over to the AIQ.
Meanwhile, advocate Mithu Jain appearing for NMC said that the second round of AIQ counseling process for NEET-SS 2025 conducted by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Union government has been postponed due to TN’s reluctance to hand over vacant seats to AIQ.
Jain said that on May 29, another bench of the Supreme Court in separate proceedings directed TN to inform the DGHS about the vacant in-service super-specialist seats after completion of the second round of consultation conducted in April. The Medical Consultation Committee (MCC) has also filed an application for implementation of the May 29 order due to non-compliance by Tamil Nadu, it said.
“A government doctor serves public health better than a private doctor,” the council said. “If a government doctor acquires specialized skills, he can better serve the cause of public health.”
In 2020, Tamil Nadu pioneered 50% quota for in-service doctors in super-speciality seats in government medical colleges, Wilson said. He stated that once these seats are given away, only government doctors will suffer.
Jain informed the court that the vacant in-service SS seats should be handed over to AIQ as per the 2022 decision of the Supreme Court in N Kartikeyan v TN, which was cited in the May 29 order.
“Every state has in-service candidates. They are government doctors. The cut-off point for them should be low as their merit is lower as they have to serve and study at the same time compared to postgraduate students who may sit at home,” the bench said.
Upholding the TN government’s decision to reserve seats for these doctors, the court observed that “for super specialty courses, there should be a quota for in-service doctors because they are serving the people of the state. If AIQ takes it, what is left for them.”
TN government lawyer P Karunakaran accepted the notice on behalf of the state as the court published the matter in July.
The petition filed by the TN Medical Officers Association said that the policy of in-service reservation of doctors has been introduced to address the shortage of specialist doctors in government hospitals and medical colleges and to ensure that super-speciality qualifications acquired through public institutions strengthen the government healthcare system. The members of the association who petitioned the Supreme Court participated in the NEET-SS 2025 counseling process and had a legitimate expectation that the seats reserved for in-service candidates would remain available till the completion of the admission process.
