Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday set aside the sports quota in MBBS and BDS for the academic year (2018-19) and directed the Telangana state government to conduct a study to find out all major sports played in the state and issue a fresh order on reservations.
It also directed the state to remove all sports that are not popular in order to avoid non-players making the most profit out of the whole game.
A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice J. Uma Devi, while setting aside the GO Ms no. 7 issued on June 21 providing sports quota for undergraduate medical courses, said that if the government issues an order retaining sports quota with suitable modifications, the same will be effective from the next academic year.
The bench was disposing of a petition by Ms Thalla Shriya and four other aspirants of the admissions under the sports quota who questioned the action of the state government in deleting archery, roller skating and fencing from the list of sports under the quota.
The bench said that the government may order a study to be carriedout either by the committee constituted under the GO 334 on May 19, 2018, or by any other committee to find out major sports played in the state; the number of school children in the age group of 14 to 18 who take to each of these sports in the state; the recognised regulatory bodies for each of these sports; and the number of students who have recorded achievements in each of these sports at the national and the international level.
The bench also said that the committee shall find out the number of students who gained admission under sports quota in the previous years, who have successfully pursued the sport activity and won in the national and international events.
The bench said, “This will actually show (or open the eyes) whether the quota really helped to encourage different kinds of sports. If the quota has not had any impact in enhancing the skills or increasing the tally of medals for the state in the national and international events, there is no point in having a quota just for the purpose of enabling a few to make money.”
The bench observed, “Though it does not lie within our domain to issue such a direction, we cannot resist our temptation to say that the government would be doing a great service to both the world of sports and the medical education, if the very quota for sportspersons in medical education is scrapped.”
