The Supreme Court has canceled the rule of giving reserved seats for postgraduate medical courses based on state domicile, calling it a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. This decision is important because it ensures that admissions to PG medical courses under state quotas will be based only on merit, determined by NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) scores. A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy, Sudhanshu Dhulia, and SVN Bhatti stated that all citizens of India have the right to live anywhere and apply for admission to educational institutions across the country.The court said, “We are all domiciles of India. There is no separate state domicile. Every Indian citizen has the right to choose where to live and pursue a profession anywhere in the country.”

The court clarified that its decision would not affect students who have already received domicile-based reservations or those who have completed their degrees under this system. This case began in 2019 when the Punjab and Haryana High Court ruled that domicile-based reservations for PG medical courses were unconstitutional. When the case reached the Supreme Court, a two-judge bench agreed but felt the issue was important enough to be decided by a larger three-judge bench.