Not Part Of State Govt Reservation Roster: Delhi High Court Directs NBEMS To Convert OBC Seats At Hospital To UR Category

The Delhi High Court has directed the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) to convert the OBC (Other Backward Castes) seats at a hospital to the (UR) Unreserved/General category.

A qualified Radiologist filed a Writ Petition seeking direction to the authorities to allot her the vacant seat of DNB PDCET [Radio Diagnosis], a 2-year course at a hospital against the vacancy reserved for OBC quota.

A Single Bench of Justice Tejas Karia held, “In view of the same, it is clear that the OBC seat allocated to the Respondent No. 3 Hospital is not part of the State Government Reservation Roster as confirmed by the Respondent No. 5, State of Haryana vide letter dated 04.06.2025 and is part of All India Quota. Further, this is not a case of conversion from one reserved category to another reserved category. In fact, this is the case for releasing the seat from a reserved category and converting the same to UR category.”

Advocate Amarjit Singh Bedi represented the Petitioner while CGSC Mukul Singh, Advocates Siddharth Garg, T. Singhdev, and Sumit Kumar Sharma represented the Respondents.

Case Background

The Petitioner was a qualified Radiologist practicing since last 18 years and had exceptional meritorious achievements. She completed her MBBS and then completed her PG Diploma in Radiology (DMRD). She also completed her 3-year Senior Residency in Radio-Diagnosis. The Respondent-NBEMS issued a notification in January this year for conducting DNB PDCET 2025 and the Petitioner appeared for the same. She secured 142nd rank Radio-Diagnosis in the UR quota. NBEMS published Indicative Seat Matrix for admission to DNB Post Diploma Courses for 2025 admission session with one seat of Radio-Diagnosis available at the Respondent-Hospital reserved for the OBC Candidate. The Petitioner filed online counselling form indicating that the said hospital being a Government hospital as her first preference IVY Health and Life Science Punjab (IVY) as her second reference.

She was under impression that the OBC quota shall be released, if there is no taker and converted to UR quota for the hospital. As per the revised allotment details of DNB (Post Diploma) Counselling 2025 Admission Session (First Round) published by NBEMS, there was no OBC candidate for the same. Consequently, the Petitioner on enquiry found that IVY is a completely private hospital and having pursued all her degrees from government colleges, she had a preference only for the government ones. Resultantly, she rejected the seat in IVY as the seat in Respondent hospital was still vacant and unallotted. Subsequently, she made a representation, seeking allotment at the Respondent hospital, provided someone above her rank in the merit list did not select the said seat. As there was no response, she was before the High Court.

Reasoning

The High Court in the above context of the case, observed, “Clause 4.6 of the Handbook Centralized Merit Based Counselling for Admission to Post Diploma DNB Courses (2025 Admission Session), will not be applicable in the facts of the present case. The decision taken at the 15th Accreditation Committee Meeting (12th Governing Body) dated 09.08.2024 will also not be applicable, as the same pertains to DNB PD seats remaining vacant post DNB PD counselling. However, the counselling for DNB PD for 2025 Admission Session is still ongoing as confirmed by the learned counsel for the Respondent No. 1.”

The Court was of the view that the OBC seats allocated to the Respondent hospital for DNB PD for 2025 Admission Session should be converted to UR category by NBEMS and be offered to all candidates including the Petitioner in order of merit, who have given preference for this seat in either first or second round of counselling for the 2025 Admission Session.

“The Respondent No. 1 is directed to convert the OBC seat at the Respondent No. 3 Hospital for DNB PD for 2025 Admission Session to unreserved category and conduct the counselling for this seat only for all the candidates, who have given preference for this seat of the Respondent No. 3 Hospital and allocate the same as per the merit list”, it directed.

Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Writ Petition.

Cause Title- Dr. Aditi Panwar v. National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences and Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2025:DHC:4986)

Appearance:

Petitioner: Advocates Amarjit Singh Bedi, Varun Chandok, and Riya Seth.

Respondents: CGSC Mukul Singh, Advocates Siddharth Garg, T. Singhdev, Sumit Kumar Sharma, Srijan Sinha, Himanshu Chaubey, Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Srajan Yadav, Abhijit Chakraborty, Yamini Singh, Saurav Kumar, and Ira Singh.

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