How do you fill NRI MBBS Seats : Court asks MCI, 10 medical colleges for explanation

Chennai: After asking the state to submit its stance on whether appropriate procedures have been followed in the selection of candidates for MBBS admission into the medical colleges this year, the Madras High Court has now ordered the Medical Council of India (MCI) to file an affidavit explaining the process for filling vacant NRI seats.

The HC bench of justices N Kirubakaran and P Velmurugan also directed all the 10 private medical colleges in the state to furnish a list of candidates along with their marks they had obtained in NEET, and the procedures followed by them to admit the students under the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota.

All these directions came in view of a petition which has made major allegations upon the MBBS admissions' process conducted this year. The petitioner had alleged that 207 unfilled NRI quota seats had been "sold" for huge sums without applying merit.

The petitioner had sought directives to the Tamil Nadu Government to undertake the necessary and proper counselling and mop-up procedure to fill up the 207 Management quota seats that have become available owing to non-filling of NRI quota seats, as per merit and prescribed procedure in the admission for medical colleges.

Earlier, this petition was dismissed by the Single Judge against which the petitioner preferred another appeal before the double bench.

The petitioner pointed out to the court that as per Clause 11 of the prospectus issued by the selection committee, unfilled NRI quota seats in the first round counselling should be filled up only from the NRI candidates through manual counselling and the said seats should not have been reverted back to the management quota. 260 seats were earmarked under the NRI quota, out of which only 53 persons were selected for admission under the NRI quota and the balance 207 seats were declared as vacant and those seats which have been reverted to the Management should also be filled up as per merit.

He alleged that the colleges had "sold" those seats to less meritorious candidates for over Rs 100 crore.

"Students who had scored the minimum eligiblity mark of 170 in NEET have been given admission under the unfilled NRI seats that were returned to the colleges, while those who had scored over 300 have not been able to gain admission. The selection committee of the DME has acted hand in glove with the colleges," he contended.

The state had denied the allegations of any discrepancy in the medical counselling process.

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In its September 25^th order, the court issued a set of directives to the state concerning the MBBS admission process carried out this year.

Read Also: Did you follow apt procedures for MBBS admissions this year: Madras High Court asks state

Now, during the recent hearing, the court took suo motu cognizance of the serious allegations on sale of NRI quota seats for hefty amounts ranging between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 50 lakh per seat.

Explaining the MBBS admission process in detail, the counsel representing the Medical Council of India (MCI), told the court that every private medical college was mandated to earmark 15% of the management quota seats for NRI quota and hand them over to the DME.

Since all NRI quota seats could not be filled up in the counselling conducted by the selection committee of the DME, the vacant seats were given back to the colleges, along with a list of students in the order of merit and equalling to ten times the number of vacancies, so that they could be filled up under the management quota from that list. Whether the colleges had filled up those vacancies from the merit list forwarded by the selection committee had to be ascertained only from them, the MCI's counsel informed the HC.

After noting the submissions made by both the parties, the HC bench pointed out that there were grey areas in filling up unfilled NRI quota seats. He said the government and the MCI should have a monitoring system in place.

…it might be better if counselling was conducted first for the NRI quota seats every year, so that the unfilled seats could be included in the common counselling conducted by the selection committee and offered to domestic students.

The bench then decided to issue appropriate directions to be followed from next academic year, reports the Hindu.

When the counsel for the petitioner submitted the entire issue has arisen because the MCI has not laid down any separate schedule for filling up the NRI quota, the court directed the MCI to file an affidavit explaining its stand on it, adds PTI.

The HC then included the all the private medical colleges as respondents to a writ appeal, and called for an explanation from them.

The bench observed

whether there was any possibility bring a rule for giving preference to students who studied in government schools for admission in government medical colleges.

A comprehensive report on these issues shall be filed in court by October 15, held the court, adds TOI.