Domicile hits 1,250 Gujarat medical, dental students

Ahmedabad: The future of 1,250 medical and dental students seems to be hanging fire following the High Court order that upholds the Gujarat Government’s requirements for a mandatory 10-year domicile for admission in higher education.

Recently, Gujarat High Court had upheld the state government’s 2017 medical admission rules, stipulating that a candidate needed to pass Class 10 and Class 12 from Gujarat schools to be eligible for the state quota. A division bench of Chief Justice Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi also upheld the state government’s 2018 amendment to the Gujarat Professional PG Medical Educational Courses (Regulation of Admission) Rules, 2017, which require a candidate to be domicile of Gujarat to apply for the state quota.

The high court, however, had asked the government to consider giving admission to those candidates who were domiciles of Gujarat but had passed Class 10 from other states.

With the decision of the court, TOI reports that more than 1,100 students will not be eligible for admissions as they do not have the called for domicile certificates, revealed officials of the Admission Committee for Professional Under Graduate Medical courses (ACPUGMEC). Another 125 they stated had domicile certificates but were other states pass outs. The court has sought the government ’s stand on the future of these 125.

A 10-year domicile certificate from the state and Class X, XI, and XII certification from schools in Gujarat have been made mandatory by the Gujarat government for admissions to medical institutions in the state.

The ACPUGMEC which began scrutiny of student application for admission soon after the High Court order discovered that over 1,100 students had filled up the forms without the domicile certificates with the hope that the domicile rule might be struck down by the court.

The ACPUGMEC also discovered that 125 domiciled students lacked a class X certification from the state, though they had all cleared Class XI and XII from the state.

With admissions of these 125 in uncertainty, the court has sought a clarification from the state government on its stance on students who have a 10-year domicile but do not have the class X certification from Gujarat, reported the TOI.

The merit list for medical and dental course students is to be declared on June 27 based on there NEET scores declared the ACPUGMEC.

The mock round admission counselling meanwhile, is to take place between June 29 and June 30, and the result of it would be declared on July 1. The seat allocation for the first round will be done on June 5.