27% OBC, 10% EWS reservation in All India Quota for medical education

Last Updated31/07/2021

The central government has announced a 27% reservation for OBC, and a 10% reservation for EWS candidates in the All India Quota for NEET, the uniform entrance examination for medical and dental colleges across the country, from the current academic year 2021-22 onwards.
This would benefit nearly 1,500 OBC students in MBBS and 2,500 OBC students in postgraduate courses, and around 550 and 1,000 EWS students respectively

The AIQ consists of 15 per cent of total available UG seats and 50 per cent of total available PG seats in government medical colleges.

The AIQ scheme was introduced in 1986 under the directions of the Supreme Court to provide for domicile-free, merit-based opportunities to students from any state to study in a good medical college in any other state.
It comprises 15% of UG seats and 50% of PG seats in government medical colleges.
Remaining chunk of the seats in state medical/dental colleges is reserved for students domiciled in their respective states.
In deemed/central universities, ESIC, and Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), 100% seats are reserved under the AIQ.
In January 2007, in Abhay Nath v University of Delhi and Others, the Supreme Court directed that reservation of 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes be introduced in the AIQ.
Until 2007, no reservation was implemented within the All India Quota for medical admission.
In 2007, the government passed the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2007 providing for 27% reservation to OBC students in central government institutions.
While state government medical and dental colleges provide reservation to OBCs in seats outside the All India Quota,
The 10% EWS quota under the Constitution (One Hundred And Third Amendment) Act, 2019, too, has been implemented in central educational Institutions, but not in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) AIQ for state institutions.

It is the entrance examination for entry to all undergraduate (NEET-UG) and postgraduate (NEET-PG) medical and dental courses in the country.
Until 2016, the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) was the national-level entrance examination for medical colleges, while state governments used to hold separate entrance tests for seats that were not contested at an all-India level.
NEET was held for the first time in 2013, but discontinued the following year.
In April 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the newly inserted section 10-D of the Indian Medical Council Act, which provides for a uniform entrance examination to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate level and postgraduate level in Hindi, English and various other languages.
Since then, NEET has been the uniform entrance test for medical courses across the country.
It was conducted by the CBSE initially, and has been conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) since 2018.