Monday, August 5, 2019

HC clears U.S. citizen’s admission to medical college
She will have to obtain Indian citizenship in 12 weeks


05/08/2019, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Friday permitted an 18-year-old U.S. citizen (by birth) to be admitted for the MBBS course in the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Medical College in Chennai on the condition that she obtain an Indian citizenship within 12 weeks or end up discontinuing the course after compensating the monetary loss of ₹10 lakh to the State government.

Justice G. Jayachandran passed the order on a writ petition filed by the student after her counsel P.V.S. Giridhar claimed that it would be impossible for the petitioner, who had been allotted a seat in ESIC college on Wednesday, to produce Indian citizenship certificate before August 8 as directed by the selection committee in the Directorate of Medical Education (DME).

According to the petitioner, she had become a U.S. citizen by birth, though her parents were Indian citizens.

After her birth, the family moved to India and she pursued her entire school education over here.

Pending request

Her request for Indian citizenship is pending at the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. In the meantime, she obtained an allotment in the counselling held on Wednesday.

However, the insistence of the DME to produce the citizenship certificate before the next round of counselling on August 8 forced her to file the present writ petition.

When the case was listed for hearing, the standing counsel for Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University Abdul Saleem informed the court that the petitioner could not be granted longer time since admissions to medical courses should be completed before September 30, as per a Supreme Court directive, and that seats unfilled before that date would go waste.

However, the judge went through the prospectus issued for admissions and found that students who discontinue studies after being allotted a seat in a government college should pay ₹10 lakh towards discontinuation fees.

The judge ordered that the petitioner be admitted in accordance with the clause.

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