AIIMS residents, students welcome SC stay on OBC

New Delhi, Mar 29: Celebrations broke out among AIIMS resident doctors and students, who were opposed to the OBC quota in elite educational institution, soon after the Supreme Court stayed the Government's decision to provide 27 per cent reservation to the OBC.

The AIIMS doctors and students, under the aegis of Youth for Equality which in May last year had spearheaded the more than month- long anti-quota agitation, welcomed the stay, saying their stand was vindicated.

As the news of the court orders reached the medicos, they exchanged sweets and expressed their faith in the judiciary.

Some students even planned to celebrate with colours and crackers during the day.

''We stand vindicated. Our fight against the unjust decision of the UPA has proved fruitful. The UPA government's double standard and vote bank politics has been exposed,'' Dr Anil Sharma, AIIMS RDA member and Youth For Equality leader, told UNI.

He said the judiciary's decision to stop UPA Government from replacing the ''talent bank'' in the country with ''vote bank'' was good.

''India is the only country which is going from being backward to becoming more backward because of its vote bank politics,'' he added.

The Supreme Court today stayed till further orders the operation of government notification issued in January this year providing for 27.5 per cent reservation for OBCs in the centrally run educational institutions as IITs, IIMs and Post Graduate medical science courses.

A bench, comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, however, made it clear that they were not staying the reservation for SCs and STs.

According to the Government notification OBC candidates were supposed to get 27.5 per cent reservation in admission to educational institutions from the academic session of 2007--2008.

The court also noted, ''We are of the view that the impugned notification and enforcing the reservation for OBCs in the educational institutions must be put on hold as the Government has failed to provide any authentic or reliable data to justify its policy of reservation.'' The hearing on the matter was adjourned till the third week of August.

UNI