Court says State’s move to reserve over 60% seats for SC candidates in MBBS admissions violates the 2006 Reservation Act, earlier court orders, and the State’s own undertaking.
The Allahabad High Court has stayed a Uttar Pradesh Government Order that had prescribed highly enhanced reservation in admissions to MBBS courses in four government medical colleges at Ambedkar Nagar, Kannauj, Jalaun and Saharanpur.
A Division Bench of Justice Alok Mathur and Justice Amitabh Kumar Rai said the State’s decision to reserve 62 out of 85 seats for Scheduled Castes, 5 for Scheduled Tribes, 11 for Other Backward Classes, and only 7 for the unreserved category was prima facie contrary to the Uttar Pradesh Admission to Educational Institutions (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 2006. The court also held that the order appeared to violate earlier judicial directions and the undertaking given by the State before the court.
The petition was filed by NEET-UG 2026 candidates who argued that the Government Order dated 1 September 2026 unlawfully reduced the seats available in the open merit category and breached the statutory reservation limits. They contended that the reservation scheme in the four medical colleges had already been struck down in earlier litigation and that the State had promised to follow the 2006 Act from the 2026-27 academic session.
The High Court noted that in an earlier case, Sabra Ahmad v. State of U.P., a Single Judge had quashed similar Government Orders and directed that admissions in the four colleges be made strictly in accordance with the 2006 Act. In the special appeal filed by the State, the Division Bench had allowed the current academic year’s admissions to continue only on the State’s assurance that from the next academic session, reservation would be implemented strictly as per law.
Despite that undertaking, the State issued a fresh Government Order continuing the enhanced reservation. The court said this was in clear breach of its earlier orders and amounted to conduct inviting contempt proceedings. It observed that the State had offered no convincing legal justification for repeating the same reservation pattern, and the argument based on the Special Component Plan had already been rejected in the earlier round of litigation.
Accordingly, the court stayed Clause 6(a)(ii) of the impugned Government Order dated 1 September 2026 and permitted the respondents to proceed with admissions only in accordance with the reservation prescribed under the 2006 Act. The court also directed the Additional Chief Secretary, Medical Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh, to file a personal affidavit explaining how the order was passed in apparent violation of the court’s earlier directions. The question of initiating contempt proceedings will be considered after the affidavit is filed.
Bottom Line :
Educational admission - Reservation in State medical colleges - State cannot prescribe reservation contrary to U.P. Admission to Educational Institutions (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 2006 and contrary to earlier court directions and undertaking - Government Order granting excessive reservation in four medical colleges stayed - Court held such action prima facie in teeth of earlier judgments and may amount to contempt.
Statutory provision(s): U.P. Admission to Educational Institutions (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 2006
Sachin Singh v. State of U.P., (Allahabad)(Lucknow)(DB) : Law Finder Doc id # 2982715
