New Delhi, July 1: The health ministry has ordered the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to probe allegations of discrimination against reserved category candidates in the selection of senior resident doctors.

Till the inquiry is over, the ministry has asked AIIMS to put on hold results of the examinations held on June 20 for 107 posts.

The ministry will send a letter to the AIIMS administration tomorrow to formally inform the authorities of the decision.

Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates for the senior residency examinations at the country’s premier medical school had on Friday alleged that the administration had deliberately introduced a subjective screening process to deny them admission.

Following the allegations, AIIMS authorities set up an inquiry commission, which however, would only investigate such complaints in the future.

In other words, the AIIMS administration was unwilling to investigate the legitimacy of the allegations made on Friday.

Reported by The Telegraph, these allegations have now prompted the ministry to ask AIIMS to conduct a “full and fair” probe into the matter.

“It is a question of the careers of tomorrow’s medical specialists. The allegations need to be looked into, right now. If everything is above board, the process can continue from where it is. Otherwise, it will need to be conducted afresh,” a senior health ministry official said.

AIIMS officials refused to comment on record before receiving the notification from the Centre.

The examinations to the 107 posts were conducted on June 20, but included — unlike previous years — a viva as a screening process following the written test.

The viva and the written test had 50 per cent “weightage” each, but candidates had to secure at least 50 per cent marks in the viva to be eligible for selection.

While 84 students from the reserved categories cleared the written test, only 24 of them were selected after the viva.

Allegations of bias against SC/ST students at AIIMS first surfaced in June, after which the Prime Minister appointed a committee to probe the matter.