The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to put in writing its denial of allegations that SC, ST and OBC candidates scoring well enough to merit admission to general seats were being illegally earmarked for reserved seats under the all-India quota of the NEET-PG.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Pankaj Kumar Mandal and other aggrieved students, had alleged that despite several apex court judgments ruling that meritorious reserved category candidates should be considered for unreserved seats, the government wasn’t doing so.

When additional solicitor-general Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, said she had instructions to say the policy of admitting meritorious reserved category candidates to general seats was being complied with, Bhushan disputed the oral submission.

The bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J.B. Pardiwala then asked Bhati to get an affidavit filed denying any breach of the existing policy, and posted the matter to Monday.

The NEET-PG -- the national entrance test for postgraduate medical seats -- reserves 50 per cent of the seats under the all-India quota while the remaining half is shared by the states.

The Centre manages the counselling process for the all-India quota seats while the states individually organise the counselling for their share of the seats.

The petitioners have said that according to the seat matrix published by the medical counselling committee, a total of 10,954 seats are available under the all-India quota.

However, the allotment list for the first round of counselling, released on September 28, shows that reserved category candidates who would easily make it to the general seats have been assigned reserved category seats, the petitioners have alleged.

They have argued this violates apex court judgments in Ritesh R. Shah vs Dr Yamul and Others (1996), Samta Aandolan Samiti and Another vs Union of India (2014) and Tripurari Sharan and Another vs Ranjit Kumar Yadav and Another (2018).

The petition quotes the 1996 judgment as saying that “a student who is entitled to be admitted on the basis of merit though belonging to a reserved category cannot be considered to be admitted against seats reserved for reserved category”.

It has asked that the allotment list published so far be set aside and a fresh list be issued in compliance with the judgments.