The Bombay High Court on Sunday stayed a resolution passed by the Maharashtra government seeking to grant domicile-based reservation to students of deemed private and state-run medical and dental colleges of the state, The Indian Express reported. The Devendra Fadnavis government had on Thursday passed the resolution which, if implemented, would have granted 67% quota in postgraduate seats to students born in Maharashtra or those who lived in the state for at least 15 years.

The petitioners in the case are students who had planned to seek admission to medical and dental colleges in Maharashtra. They had challenged the resolution in the High Court on Saturday night. The first merit list under the new domicile-based reservation rules, however, was released on Sunday.

The students argued that the admission process had begun in January and the sudden change of rules will leave them in the lurch. While the Directorate of Medical Education argued that it was too late to change the reservation rules, the High Court went with the students and stayed the order.

The DME said it will move the Supreme Court against the order. “We had planned to announce the reservation in two phases – the first for postgraduate courses and then for undergraduate courses. We will now seek justice from the Supreme Court,” an official of the directorate told The Indian Express.

This move to reserve seats based on the domicile of students had also led to displeasure among the institutes. While a group of private institutes plan to approach the government on the decision, others have begun to gather the support of private and deemed medical colleges from across the country to file a national-level intervention, Hindustan Times had reported.

The Maharashtra government’s resolution had also introduced social reservations for the first time in deemed and private medical colleges, wherein 25% of the seats will be reserved for candidates from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, Vimukta Jati, nomadic tribes and other backward classes.