AP:Hyderabad High Court curtails seat conversion from category B to C by Private medical colleges

Hyderabad:A major malpractice by private medical colleges surfaced when in a significant order, the Hyderabad High Court, on Thursday, dissuaded private medical colleges from giving away a large number of seats to NRI’s at a scaled price.

Private medical colleges in the states have two B and C category seats; the B category are allotments that have to be given away under the government quota, at Rs 11 lac- per annum. The colleges have currently been found following an under the table process of converting the category B seats to C and selling them to NRI’s at exorbitant amounts.

A bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice Anis on receiving complaints from aggrieved students, on Thursday, made it clear to private medical colleges of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to fill their category B seats, if required, through a second round of counseling. The court also directed the colleges to ensure that their category C seats did not exceed a certain sum limit; that fixed by the Supreme Court of India.

The orders passed by the bench are bound to put an end to this prevailing malpractice in private colleges of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Fee for the C category seats ranges between Rs. 33 lac and 55 lac. The petitioners, also contended that category B allotments should follow the second counselling method, as done for category A seats. They further complained, that the governments in both the states were permitting the conversion of category B seats to C, which were otherwise to be filled based on the basis of NEET ranks. They also revealed that these conversion allotment candidates were allowed to report to college much after the admission process was done with.