The Supreme Court cleared the way for postgraduate medical counseling and admissions, including reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and economically disadvantaged sections (EWS), for the current academic year, 2021-22, on Friday. A bench led by Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna upheld the constitutional validity of the 27% OBC and 10% EWS reservation for the NEET-UG and NEET-PG. However, the Supreme Court added that it would rule on the rationale for the Rs 8 lakh income threshold for the EWS category in March of this year. After a day-long hearing on petitions challenging the validity of the EWS quota in postgraduate medical admissions and the Centre's argument in favour of the quota, the court said on Thursday that there is a situation where counseling must begin in the national interest, which was also a key demand of protesting resident doctors. "We are in a scenario where counseling needs to begin in the national interest," stated a bench led by Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and A.S. Bopanna. The Centre's Solicitor General Tushar Mehta claimed that all candidates qualified for the EWS quota had received certificates for registration based on existing criteria, and that seats in all government institutions had been extended to accommodate the EWS quota.