Govt: 7.5% quota seats being worked out for waitlisted candidates

MBBS ADMISSIONS

Govt: 7.5% quota seats being worked out for waitlisted candidates

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:03.12.2020

The Tamil Nadu government has assured the Madras high court that it would work out seats for waitlisted government school candidates under the 7.5% quota in medical and dental courses.

These students were kept on the waitlist as they did not take government quota seats in private college because they could not afford the fees. While annual fee in is less than ₹20,000 in government medical colleges, the state quota seats in private colleges cost more than ₹4.5 lakh per annum as tuition fee.

Advocate general Vijay Narayan made the submission on a batch of pleas moved by such students.

Representing the petitioners, senior advocate P Wilson submitted that the government’s offer to pay fees in private medical colleges for such students was made on November 20. But the students who had been called for counselling on November 18 and could not take the allotted seats in private colleges, as they were not able to afford the fees. They were then kept in the waitlist, Wilson said.

He submitted that the government’s fee offer should be given retrospective effect and applied to petitioners and similarlyplaced candidates.

Recording the submissions, Justice N Anand Venkatesh adjourned the hearing to December 11.

In their petitions, A Rajalakshmi and others said since they were not in a position to afford huge fees in private colleges allotted to them, they were compelled to opt for waiting list.

While so, a day after their counselling, the director of medical education addressed all the deans of self-financing medical and dental colleges coming under the single window selection to admit all the candidates under 7.5% government school reservation without insisting on fees.

Therefore, the petitioners wanted the court to direct the authorities to grant admission to them for MBBS/dental course of their choice as per rank, communal, horizontal reservations and other factors.

This apart, the petitioners also wanted the court to pass an interim order restraining the authorities from filling up all seats in MBBS course in MBC category under 7.5% horizontal reservation pending disposal of the plea.