PG Medical Admissions: Gujarat HC reserves verdict on New Eligibility Criteria
Gujarat High Court
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court reserved its verdict on plea challenging the amended eligibility criteria for PG medical admission in the State quota seats.
Students who are aspiring to get admitted to PG medical courses in Gujarat had approached the High Court challenging the State Government's decision of opening up the State quota PG medical seats for MBBS graduates from other states.
Until now, only students who completed MBBS in Gujarat and were Domicile of Gujarat were eligible for State Quota PG Counselling. However, from this year, the State has opened the doors for the State quota PG medical seats (both Government and Private seats) to the MBBS graduates from outside States as well.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that after the commencement of NEET PG 2022 counselling on September 15, 2022, the Guidelines issued by the Admission Committee Website mentioned that, "Anyone who completed MBBS outside Gujarat (Either FMGs or Candidates completed MBBS outside Gujarat but in India) who completed 12th in Gujarat and have Domicile of Gujarat are now eligible for Government and Private PG Seats of Gujarat State."
Later, the State Health Department had also issued a notification in this regard and informed about the changed rules for admission to State quota seats. The notification stated in this regard, "The candidate must have completed the recognized MBBS or BDS course from University established by an Act of the Parliament and situated in any State/Union Territory of India or have completed aforesaid courses from outside of India and fulfills the eligibility criteria of MCI, NMC or Government of India, as the case may be, and must have passed 12th qualifying examination with "B-group" or "AB-group" either from (a) Gujarat Board or (b) from Central Board of Secondary Education/The International School Board (International Baccalaureate and Cambridge)/ The National Institute of Open Schooling provided that school is located in the State of Gujarat and the candidate must have born in Gujarat State or be the Domicile of Gujarat State."
Therefore, the Admission Committee notified about the changed rule even before the Government issued the notice. Upset with this changed eligibility criteria, the PG medical aspirants in Gujarat had approached he HC bench. Addressing the matter, the Gujarat Intern Doctors' Association and Gujarat MBBS Students' Association had issued a joint statement and informed about their plans for representation before the Government.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the counsel for the petitioner students, Asim pandya submitted that the amended rules had been notified in the Gazette on September 27 and therefore contended that the amendment cannot be enforced from the current academic year. He also argued that the advertisement that was published on the website of the Admission Committee referred to the eligibility criteria. However, the advertisement did not match the admission rules prevailing on that day.
On the other hand, the Government pleader Manisha Shah responded by submitting that the changed rules were enforced from September 19 and thee students were notified about the new eligibility criteria on the very day of commencement of the admission process. Referring to these facts, the Government Pleader argued that it cannot be said that the rules of the game had been changed after the commencement of the process.
Further, the Government argued that only the eligibility criteria have been enlarged, which would not be harmful for the MBBS graduates from Gujarat who wish to get admitted in the State quota seats. In fact, the new rules are expected to help the students from the State who had to take admission in the all-India medical quota seats in other States, submitted the Government. It was also asserted by the Government that it had the competence for changing the rule and the new rules will be placed before the State assembly in the next session.
After taking note of the arguments of both the sides, the Gujarat HC on Wednesday completed the hearing and reserved the verdict in the matter.
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