MBBS Nativity issue: Madras High Court dismisses pleas

Chennai: Citing that their petitions are bereft of merits, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed four separate pleas challenging the nativity of 126 MBBS students from other States who were allotted seats in Tamil Nadu under the State government quota this academic year.

Medical Dialogues had reported about the case wherein the issue of dual nativity certificates produced by 126 MBBS students was brought to attention by a group of medicos who alleged that candidates from outside the State had participated in the NEET counselling for the State government quota, who were placed in the rank list of 85% state government quota which was only meant for admitting students from Tamil Nadu.

The petitioners further submitted that the counselling conducted for the allotment of medical seats under the state government quota was improper as the prospectus of the government quota mandated that the candidates should be natives of Tamil Nadu. However, the prospectus issued for the management quota has no mention about the nativity of the candidates. This could probably pave way for candidates from outside the state to secure medical seats which would block opportunity for the native students.

Also, Read Dual Nativity for MBBS admissions: Madras HC notice to 126 MBBS students

Justice Suresh Kumar after hearing the case on August 26, 2019, mentioned that it is important for the court to know on what basis the 126 MBBS students received nativity certificates from Tamil Nadu. The court further directed the medical students to file their response regarding the same.

During the hearing, the Government advocate submitted that all the 126 MBBS student were asked to attend counselling after verifying their documents. Taking note of this, it was concluded that though the medical students were told to attend the counselling following the rules, the court needs to know the grounds on which the nativity certificate has been furnished.

During the previous hearing, the court suo moto impleaded 126 MBBS students from the list to ascertain their nativity.

Later, the HC had given 14 days to the medicos to furnish the pertinent documents with the court.

Read Also: 126 MBBS students given 14 days deadline to submit nativity documents to Madras High Court

Now, during the recent hearing session, the judge cited that the question of deleting the alleged other state candidates had become a non-starter as far as the materials before the court was concerned.

The HC bench observed

"It is open to state government to scrutinize the affidavits and documents submitted by these candidates on a case to case basis and apply clause 5(h) of the Tamil Nadu medical admission prospectus (which speaks about the action that would be taken against the candidate if they produce false nativity certificate), if the need arises in a given case. If any falsity is detected, obviously candidates will be expelled, but that will be a separate exercise by the state government under 5(h) of the prospectus obviously after giving adequate opportunity to the candidate concerned."

Further, citing that the petitioners have not made out any case for assailing the rank list published and the counselling conducted, the judge said that there is no ground to direct the selection committee to conduct a fresh counselling.

The judge said a careful perusal of the cut-off marks revealed that even if all the remaining 48 candidates were dislodged, these four writ petitioners would not get admission. Hence, the judge dismissed the petitions citing that they were bereft of merits, reports TOI.

For the MBBS admissions in Tamil Nadu this year, 15% (506 seats) were reserved under All-India quota of the 3,250 medical seats in 23 medical colleges in the state while 2,744 seats were available under government quota in government colleges. The government quota in private colleges is 977 seats of which 562 are filled up by the management and 269 allotted for NRIs.