The Supreme Court upheld 27% reservation for OBC candidates in the All India Quota seats for undergraduate and postgraduate NEET medical and dental admissions. Rejecting the petitioners' merit-versus-reservation framing, the Court held that reservation is not antithetical to merit but furthers distributive justice, and that an examination rank is not a proxy for merit.
The Supreme Court held that a candidate from a vertically reserved category (SC/ST/OBC) who scores above the general cut-off must be adjusted against the open seats on merit, not counted against the reserved quota. The rule holds even where the candidate also claims a horizontal reservation such as for women. The open category is open to all on merit.