HC halts Telangana’s 85% local quota in PG medical management seats

The Telangana High Court stayed the State’s new rule introducing an 85% local quota in PG medical management seats, observing that it amounted to changing the rules mid-admission. The court kept the quota in abeyance for 2025–26 and sought counter affidavits

Hyderabad: Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin of the Telangana High Court on Friday put on hold the State’s recent amendments introducing an 85 per cent local quota within the management seats for postgraduate medical courses in private unaided institutions.

The Court was hearing a batch of writ petitions filed by non-local students seeking admission to PG courses under the management category in private, unaided, minority and non-minority colleges. They argued that until this year, management quota seats were open without any reservation, and the sudden introduction of an 85:15 local-to-all India division after the admission process had already begun was illegal and fundamentally unfair.

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Senior counsel Gandra Mohan Rao, appearing for the petitioners, contended that the government’s amendments through GO Ms Nos 200 and 201 dated November 3, 2025, effectively rewrote the admission framework mid-process. He submitted that the move ran contrary to the Supreme Court’s ruling in PA Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra, which bars reservation within management quota seats, and violated Article 14.

He also relied on the Supreme Court’s recent judgment in Dr Tanvi Behl vs Shrey Goel, which held that residence-based reservations are permissible for MBBS but not for postgraduate medical courses that require higher merit and competitiveness.

The counsel argued that dividing management quota seats into 85 per cent for locals and only 15 per cent for all-India candidates would drastically reduce the petitioners’ chances, amounting to changing the rules midway.

The State and the Standing Counsel for Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences sought time to obtain instructions and file counter affidavits.

After hearing all sides, the bench held that the amendments prima facie amounted to “changing the rules of the game after it has begun” and decided to keep the new quota formula in abeyance for the current academic year. It clarified that the impugned rule introducing 85 per cent local reservation shall not apply to PG medical admissions for 2025-26 under Management Quota Sub-Category-1 in private, unaided minority and non-minority colleges.

The State and the University were granted four weeks to file their counters, and petitioners were given two weeks thereafter to file replies. The matter was posted to January 19, 2026 for further hearing.