New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Tamil Nadu’s interim prayer seeking implementation of 50 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in the State’s medical colleges on seats contributed to the All-India Quota this academic year.

A bench comprising Justices L Nageshwara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi dismissed the pleas. In July, the Madras High Court directed the Centre to constitute a panel – with representatives from State and Central governments apart from the Medical Council of India – to decide on the issue of providing OBC reservations in the AIQ seats. Both the Dravidian parties had approached the apex court after the Centre made it clear that it was not possible to implement the quota for OBCs this year.

Regional parties have expressed disappointment over the ruling, and urged the State to take immediate steps to secure reservations. The DMK attacked the ruling governments at State and Centre for “jointly shattering” the dreams of several backward caste candidates. “The rights of over 10,000 students have been affected,” he said, while calling upon the State government to exert political pressure on the Centre to implement the reservation. This comes at a time when the Tamil Nadu Governor has sought 3-4 weeks time to decide on the 7.5 per cent horizontal reservations Bill of the State government.