Plea Alleging Misuse of NRI Quota for Admission to Private Medical Colleges Dismissed by HC

Kolkata: The pleas seeking the High Court's intervention over alleged misuse of NRI quota in medical admissions in private medical colleges were recently dismissed by the Calcutta High Court.

A division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya dismissed the plea noting that the pleas were filed in 2019 and since then there have been various changes to the admission process making it more stringent to take admission under the NRI quota.

Further, the Court took note of the fact that the students who were admitted in 2019 would have all completed their course and the pleas challenging their admissions would be rendered academic.

"I am aware of the issue. Earlier anyone could say they were a relative of an NRI who was sponsoring their fees. Admission would be given, along with 5 times the fee, and there would be no problem. Present guidelines say that only blood relatives can sponsor a candidate, so it has become more stringent," noted the court.

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As per the latest media report by Live Law, the pleas were filed seeking the Court's intervention over the issue of NRI quota in medical admissions and praying for a compliance with the Supreme Court's guidelines in this regard. The Counsel for one of the petitioners submitted that the admissions were being sold through the NRI quota at a premium rate to non-NRI candidates.

On the other hand, the counsel for the National Medical Commission (NMC), erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI), pointed out that the pleas were from 2019. He further argued that from the year 2020, the University was no longer the counselling authority but just the admission authority. Therefore, the NMC counsel argued that the plea would be infructious.

Taking note of the fact that the guidelines had changed since the pleas had been filed and also observing that the petitioner who had initiated one of the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) in this regard had since passed away, the Court dismissed the plea.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2018, a member of Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena had filed a plea in the Supreme Court asking for directives on the issue of irregularities in MBBS admissions under the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota. The plea blamed the Centre and others for allowing such irregularities.

 It was alleged that in most medical colleges, while applications were made under the NRI quota, very few students actually took admission and the vacant seats were filled by other students without abiding by the rules and regulations.

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