High Court Relief: Gujarat to treat OCI candidate as par with NRI for MBBS Admission 2019-20

Ahmedabad: In a relief to an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) candidate who faced rejection by the Gujarat Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUMEC), the state government has informed the Gujarat High Court that the student's candidature for MBBS admission shall be treated at par with the Non Resident Indian (NRI) Student.

The state's response came subsequent to the HC notice seeking its reply on the case of the student who moved the court after the state admission committee refused to accept her candidature.

Born in Gujarat, 17-year-old OCI candidate holds a British passport and she sought admission to NRI quota in the state. She had appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for MBBS and BDS courses, NEET 2019 and scored 534 marks. The MBBS aspirant passed her class 10th and 12th examinations from Gujarat based schools.

She had registered herself online for MBBS admission with the ACPUMEC however her candidature got rejected.

Aggrieved by the refusal, the student moved the HC and urged the bench to direct the admission committee to treat her on par with an NRI candidate for MBBS admission for the current academic year of 2019-20 against all categories of seats including the government seats under the state government quota.

Arguing in her favour, the petitioner's counsel mentioned an amendment in admission rules in 2018 that opened up MBBS admissions to OCI students. No restriction was placed on an OCI for admission in any seat under the state government quota in the general category.

The rules were amended in June 2019 again about which the Medical Dialogues had reported. The Gujarat Professional Medical Educational courses (Regulation of Admission in Undergraduate courses) (Amendment) Rules, 2019 involved the changes in domicile selection, the establishment of a new medical college and the implementation of EWS quota for this academic year.

Firstly, the domiciliary requirement for persons born in Gujarat was dispensed with and second, the words "or overseas citizens of India" were dropped from a relevant sub-rule.

The amendment clearly stated:

In the Gujarat Professional Medical Educational courses (Regulation of Admission in Undergraduate courses) Rules, 2017, (here in after referred to as " the said rules" in rule 4;

(i) in sub-rule (1), the words "or overseas citizen of India" shall be deleted;

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The petitioner's lawyer highlighted that the government has adopted the definition of NRI prescribed in the Income Tax Act for the purpose of admission to MBBS courses and hence, the student's case be treated accordingly, reports TOI.

Meanwhile, she has sought interim relief to allow her to participate in the admission process and secure a seat, if otherwise eligible, or to alternatively set aside one seat to the medical college to which she would have secured admission, if she were considered eligible, adds TNIE in its report.

In view of her petition, the HC had issued a notice to the state asking for its stand on the matter to which now the Gujarat government has replied that it will surely treat the OCI student as an NRI for MBBS admission.

The state further submitted that it would file a detailed reply on the issue on July 15.