The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed Maharashtra government’s order on 10% reservation to students belonging to the economically weaker sections in postgraduate medical courses in the state for 2019-’20 academic year, reported Bar and Bench.

The court said the admission process for postgraduate medical courses in Maharashtra started before the 10% EWS quota came into force. “Ten per cent EWS quota cannot be granted to the ongoing admission process,” the bench said. “You cannot change the rules of game when the game is on.”

A petition was filed by NGO Janhit Abhiyan and another individual seeking a stay on government’s order for this academic year. They claimed that unless there is additional allocation of seats, the quota would eat into the open category seats. On Monday, the vacation bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose had asked the Maharashtra government to apprise it of the status of admissions to postgraduate medical and dental courses.

The Parliament had passed the Constitution (One Hundred and Third) Amendment Act, 2019, on January 9 and It came into effect five days later. The law provides 10% reservations in aided and unaided institutions to the economically backward from upper castes. The quota will be over and above the existing 50% reservation to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.