Court Directs Govt To Include Student As NRI in MBBS Waiting List

By Little India Desk | September 5, 2017

The Delhi High Court has directed the Union government to include a student who had sought admission to MBBS course through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) as an NRI candidate even though he appeared for the entrance exam as a resident candidate.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru said this would enable the student to approach the deemed universities directly. The high court issued the direction after the counsel for Union government said that all vacant seats had been released to the universities.

For the student, the only assistance that can be granted is that his name can be included in the waiting list as an NRI candidate to deemed universities. The Delhi High Court was hearing a student’s petition, filed via advocate Pradeep Kumar Arya to admit him as an NRI candidate for MBBS admission for the year 2017-18 in Central list of deemed universities.

The student had completed Class 12 last year from Saudi Arabia. His father stays in Madhya Pradesh and his mother was a Non-Resident Indian as she stayed in Saudi Arabia for 180 days in the last financial year. The student appeared for the exam as a resident candidate.

On July 21, the Union government issued a notification stating that all NRI candidates who had registered under unreserved/ Indian category at the time of registration for undergraduate MBBS/BDS seats and were eligible to be considered under NRI quota, to send their relevant documents supporting their status by July 25 for being considered under the NRI category.

The student had not sent any of the relevant documents following the government notification. He, however, claimed that he had made the request prior to July 21 and even after July 25.

Many NRI seats in medical colleges lie vacant across states. As many as 676 of the total 773 seats in this category are vacant in Karnataka even after the mop-up round, according to The Hindu. This is the first year when management and NRI quota seats were allotted through a common counselling process by the Karnataka Examinations Authority.

In Tamil Nadu, more than 5,200 MBBS/BDS seats are left vacant, according to Times of India.