Anomalies in NRI Quota MBBS Admissions: SC moved against Centre, DMER Maha

Mumbai: Asking for directives on the issue of irregularities in MBBS admissions under the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota, a member of Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court; while blaming the centre and others for allowing the same.

The petition has been filed against Union of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) of state Maharashtra, Medical Counselling Committee of New Delhi; for not taking appropriate action against violation of rules by MAEER Mimer Medical College in Talegaon, and Kashibai Navale Medical College.

The petition complained that these colleges had allegedly made the NRI quota fees blatantly high. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported about the large vacancies existing in the NRI quota of the Maharashtra Medical colleges . As indicated by the figures revealed by the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) Cell, around 217 seats out of 225 NRI medical seats were yet to be filled after three rounds of admissions. This incidence reportedly occurred allegedly due to high fee.

Read Also: Maharashtra Medical admissions: 96% NRI quota still vacant allegedly due to high fee

According to the petitioner, Kalpesh Yadav, President of the Maharashtra Navnirman Vidyarthi Sena's student wing, he has been complaining about the issue of anomalies in Medical Admissions in MBBS under NRI quota, for a long time, but his request for an action in that regard has fallen on deaf ears.

In his petition requesting the apex court to address this issue, the petitioner has presented the following submissions, while blaming the authorities for not taking the cognizance of his complaints:

• In most medical colleges while applications are made under NRI quota, very few students actually take admission and the vacant seats are filled by other students without abiding by the rules and regulations.


• The Medical Counselling Committee had issued a notice that any conversion of any students' category could be done only by the prior permission of the committee. This notice was issued on May 25, 2018.

The petitioner has tried to bring the court's attention to the implication that the medical colleges are currently using this tactic in which they don't convert the leftover MBBS seats from the NRI quota to regular seats and allot these seats to medical aspirants who are willing to pay more money for it.

Entailing this, the petitioner mentioned how there has been a breach of court orders issued on August 22, 2017. The directive mentioned that some seats should be allocated under this quota for students who are coming from other countries or have parents working outside the country or have relatives who might sponsor their education.

"The criteria set up by the high court in 2017 are not followed by most medical colleges. I have requested that seats staying vacant under NRI quota should be converted into regular seats and filled through the regular admission process," the petitioner urged.

"To support my claim I have provided the example of MAEER Mimer Medical College and Hospital, which had kept the NRI quota fees for MBBS course exorbitantly high in comparison to other categories. Of 20 applicants only three joined the course and the other vacant seats were filled in defiance of the court order issued in 2017. A similar case has been seen in Kashibai Navale Medical College," he added.

"This petition seeks to draw the notice of the court to the blatant violations of the aforequoted orders by the two colleges of MAEER Mimer Medical College and Kashibai Navale Medical College while filling up 15 per cent of the total number of seats in MBBS and BDS courses in medical institutions under NRI quota," the petitioner informed.

The DMER has been made the main culprit on the issue. According to

Pune Mirror, the petitioner has blamed the Maharashtra DMER for its inaction on the complaints on "how a majority of medical colleges misuse the 15 per cent NRI quota and give admission to students from other categories students by taking capitation fees."

When asked on the issue, Dr Pravin Shingare, DMER, said, "We had not taken any action as the college had not violated any norms. If it is shown that we have failed to take any action then we will initiate the same against the colleges mentioned."