HC clears decks for MBBS admission to NRI

HC clears decks for MBBS admission to NRI

TNN | Jan 3, 2021, 04.04 AM IST

Hyderabad: Telangana high court has directed Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) to grant admission to MBBS course to an Indian-American girl student with roots in Warangal under NRI quota meant for foreign nationals in the ongoing counselling session. The girl, Srikeerthi Reddi Pingle, was born and brought up in the US.

The court said KNRUH cannot set new guidelines that were not put forward by the authorities of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) and Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) for giving admission to foreign nationals. The state government is thinking in terms of preferring an appeal against this order.

A division bench of justices MS Ramachandra Rao and T Amarnath Goud pronounced this order after hearing a petition filed by Srikeerthi, a native of Parkal in Warangal. Her father VR Reddi Pingle had settled down in the US long ago. Srikeerthi completed her class XII in Conard High School under West Hartford Board of Education, Connecticut. Aspiring to secure admission to the medicine course, she had appeared for NEET (hall ticket No. 4205004360) in the foreign nationals category. She secured an all-India rank of 4,82,207 (category rank No. 1,59,648).

However, Kaloji university (on December 12, 2020) rejected her candidature on the ground that she did not study biological sciences at the Intermediate level which, it said, was the pre-requisite for securing admission to MBBS course. “She may have studied biological sciences at the class X level, but that does not fit into our book of rules which say that an aspirant should have passed his or her Intermediate with biological sciences, physics and chemistry,” additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao, who appeared for the university, said.

Petitioner’s counsel Vedula Srinivas, however, told the court that the school counsellor of Conard High School had issued a certificate on December 11, stating that she had taken the advanced placement biology course and studied topics like biochemistry, cellular biology, organismal biology, population biology, evolution, genetics and ecology in the10th grade itself.

“She had also submitted a letter signed by the supervisor of the West Hartford science department certifying her academic credentials to this effect,” the counsel pointed out. The Consulate General of India, New York, had also issued a letter on Dec 22 certifying that the 12th year high school diploma obtained by the petitioner in the US is equivalent to Intermediate study in India. “Even the TSBIE (on Dec 23) issued an equivalence certificate stating that what Srikeerthi studied at West Hartford Board is equal to Intermediate in Telangana,” Srinivas contended.

At this, the judges said the rules pertaining to foreign nationals clearly provide space for equivalence certificate. “Since Srikeerthi had got a certificate from the TSBIE itself, there is no reason why new objections should be raised. Though the candidate satisfied this criterion, the officials are now citing a new ground that she did not study biology at class XII level,” the bench said.

Declaring such argument as untenable, the judges directed the university to provide her admission under the NRI quota.