NRI quota allocated unfairly to most sought branches: HC

NRI quota allocated unfairly to most sought branches: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 03.12.2024

Jabalpur : The Madhya Pradesh High Court has issued notices and sought replies while hearing a petition alleging that the 15% of seats in the state's private medical colleges, reserved for NRIs, are only being allocated in eight popular courses and not evenly distributed, which is against the rights of meritorious non-NRI students.

The division bench of the high court, comprising Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf, issued notices to the respondents, seeking their response. The public interest petition, filed by Dr Ojas Yadav from Bhopal, stated that NEET prepared a merit list for NRIs. Private medical colleges in the state allocate 15% of seats under the NRI quota. Although there are 22 branches in medical colleges, the state govt allocated NRI quota seats to only eight branches, which are in high demand. Advocate Alok Bagrecha, representing the petitioner, argued that the excessive allocation of NRI quota seats in selected branches would affect the rights of meritorious students, as the number of available seats decreased. There are a total of 545 seats in the eight branches, with 152 allocated under the NRI quota. 

NRI quota seats should have been distributed across all branches. The process adopted by the state govt is completely illegal, the counsel said. The seat matrix of private colleges, which outlines the seats allocated to each category, was prepared in violation of the Medical Education Admission Rules-2018, the petitioner claimed before the court. Instead of the stipulated 15% for the NRI quota, 40 to 50% have been reserved in various branches. And, choice filling is being conducted without providing time for claims and objections as per admission rules. After the hearing, the bench issued notices to the respondents, seeking a response within a week