Selective allocation of NRI Quota for PG medical courses- HC Issues Notice
Madhya Pradesh High Court
Jabalpur: While considering the plea challenging the selective allocation of NRI quota reservation in medical admission in the State's private medical colleges, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices and sought a response from the authorities in this regard.
Filing the plea, a Bhopal-based doctor alleged that 15% of the seats in the private medical colleges of the State, which are reserved for the NRIs, are being allocated only to eight popular courses and not being evenly distributed.
It has been alleged by the petitioner that such selective allocation is against the rights of the meritorious non-NRI students. Dr. Ojas Yadav, the petitioner, submitted before the court that there are 22 branches in medical colleges. However, NRI quotas are allocated only to eight branches, which are in high demand.
As per the latest media report by the Times of India, the counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Alok Bagrecha argued that the excessive allocation of NRI quota seats would affect the rights of the meritorious students due to the decrease in the number of available seats. The petitioner's counsel pointed out that while there are altogether 545 seats available in these eight branches, 152 seats are allocated under the NRI quota. Therefore, the counsel argued that the NRI quota seats should have been distributed across all branches and further contended that the process adopted by the State Government was completely illegal.
The petitioner further claimed before the High Court bench that the seat matrix of the private medical colleges, which outlines the seats allocated to each category, was prepared in violation of the Medical Education Admission Rules 2018.
Further, it was pointed out before the Court that instead of the stipulated 15% for the NRI quota, 40-50% of the seats have been reserved in various branches. It was also claimed that the choice-filling was being conducted without giving any time to the claims and objections as per the admission rules.
After the hearing, the HC bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf issued notices to the respondents and asked them to submit a response within a week.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the issue was previously raised before the HC bench as a Public Interest Litigation. However, during the special sitting on the matter, the Division Bench of the HC had refused to hear the matter as a PIL. After this, the petitioner sought to withdraw the PIL and the HC bench accepted this prayer. It also granted liberty to the petitioner to use alternative legal remedies available to him.
Also Read: PIL Challenges NRI Quota in Medical Colleges, HC Denies Hearing
