After the hearing, the High Court bench issued notices to the state authorities, requesting them to respond to the allegations within a week
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has addressed a petition that challenges the unfair allocation of Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota seats in private medical colleges across the state, reported medicaldialogues.in.
A division bench consisting of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf issued notices to the relevant authorities, calling for responses to the allegations. The petition, filed by Dr. Ojas Yadav from Bhopal, claims that the 15% reserved NRI quota seats are disproportionately assigned to a select few high-demand medical courses, infringing upon the rights of deserving non-NRI students.
Current regulations stipulate that 15% of seats in private medical colleges should be reserved for NRIs. However, this quota is not distributed evenly across all available courses.
This case highlights the ongoing concerns regarding the fairness and transparency of medical college admissions, especially in private institutions
While there are 22 medical branches in the colleges, the state government has allocated NRI quota seats to only eight of the most popular branches, resulting in an excessive concentration of these seats in those courses. This distribution reduces the number of seats available for merit-based admissions, particularly disadvantaging students without an NRI background.
Advocate Alok Bagrecha, who represented Dr. Yadav, argued that this uneven allocation violates the principles of fairness and harms non-NRI candidates. The petition reveals that 152 out of 545 total seats in these eight branches are reserved for NRI students, leaving fewer opportunities for merit-based candidates. The petition calls for a more equitable distribution of NRI quota seats across all medical branches.
The petition also raises concerns over the seat allocation process, claiming that it violates the Medical Education Admission Rules of 2018. Some branches, instead of adhering to the mandated 15% NRI quota, have been assigned up to 50% of seats for NRIs. Furthermore, the admission process allegedly does not allow adequate time for students to file objections or claims, as required by the admission rules.
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