NEET PG Counselling: Vacant NRI Seats In Private Institutes will be added in Last Round- State tells MP HC

Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh government has informed the High Court that the vacant NRI quota postgraduate medical seats would be filled from the General category based on merit in the last round of counselling process of the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 examination.

The State gave this assurance during the proceedings of a plea seeking the inclusion of 48 vacant NRI seats of Private Medical Colleges and their conversion into General quota seats for meritorious candidates.

Filing the plea, the petitioner sought direction to the respondents to include the 48 seats allocated to the NRI quota in the General Quota, in case they are not filled up by bonafide NRI candidates based on merit.

In the plea, the petitioner claimed that 48 seats of NRI category candidates were lying vacant and those seats were not being offered to the candidates appearing in the First Round and in the Second Round.

Further, the petitioner submitted that the Director of Medical Education was waiting for new NRI Candidates, whereas, factually it was impossible to get new NRI Candidates in the State because it had been exposed that "fictitious NRI category candidates have blocked the seats in Private Medical Colleges."

Also Read: Selective allocation of NRI Quota for PG medical courses- HC Issues Notice

The matter was being considered by a Division bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Devanarayan Mishra. During the hearing of the matter, the counsel for State, Additional Advocate General relied on Rule 14(A)(2) of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Admission Rules, 2018 and submitted that in terms of Rule 14(A) (2), in the case that the NRI seats are left vacant the same has to be included in the last round i.e. mop up round in the General category and has to be filled based on merit-choice.

"She submits that the left over seats out of the 48 NRI seats that remain vacant shall be filled up at the time of mop up round from the General Category based on merit-cum-choice. The statement is taken on record," the HC bench noted.

Considering the statement, the counsel for the petitioner sought leave to withdraw the petition. "Petition is accordingly, dismissed as withdrawn," the HC bench noted, while further adding that "Respondents are bound down their statements."

As per the latest media report by Live Law, the plea claimed that as per the directions of the Supreme Court, the 48 seats must be converted for general category candidates who can get it as per merit and the seats should not go vacant. The petitioner appeared in the NEET PG exam 2024 as a General Category candidate and secured a rank of 936 in the State.

Based on the petitioner's rank and State percentile of 87.25 and NEET percentile of 87.27, she would have secured the best subject in Post Graduation in any of the private medical colleges of Madhya Pradesh. However, after completing the First Round of Counselling, she was not allotted any seat, because of 48 fake NRI candidates whose seats were blocked and were not being offered to the students as per their merit position either in the first or second round or in the mop-up/last round of counselling.

The petitioner submitted that even after the Supreme Court's order in the case of Index Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre v/s The State of Madhya Pradesh & Others (2021) and the verdict of Madhya Pradesh High Court in the matter of Dr. Yogyata Marothi (W.P. No. 28721 of 2023), the Director of Medical Education was not doing anything and was letting the 48 NRI quota seats go to waste.

Accordingly, the petitioner sought a direction to the authorities to include the 48 seats allocated to the NRI quota in the General quota, in case they were not filled up by the bonafide NRI candidates based on merit.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that recently the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the concerned authorities to hold fresh special counselling to fill up the vacant NRI quota seats in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 counselling and complete the admission process at the earliest.

Back then, the HC Division bench comprising Justices Sushrut Arvid Dharmadhikari and Anuradha Shukla had observed that the criteria formulated by the Madhya Pradesh Government for allotment of postgraduate medical seats under the NRI quota was "fair" and "reasonable".

To view the order, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/madhya-pradesh-hc-272910.pdf

Also Read: NEET PG 2024: MP HC Orders Fresh Counselling of NRI Quota vacant Seats