Plea against NRI Quota seats conversion declined by SC

Thiruvanathapuram: Writ petitions of two MBBS aspirants against NRI quota seat conversion to general category during the spot allotments for MBBs courses were rejected by the Supreme Court, on Friday.

Chief Justice of India, Deepak Mishra headed bench heard the plea. Despite the counsel’s argument that NRI quota seats could not be converted into merit seats, the bench seemed disinclined to agree.

Meanwhile, Mukul Rohatgi, the state’s counsel, presented a counter argument that the seat conversion from NRI to the general category was done as the NRI candidates did not have sufficient documents with them to prove that they were legitimate claimants to the NRI quota.

The Supreme Court on Monday also postponed three self-financing college management’s writ hearings against the cancellation of admission to the MBBS seats in their institutions.

Notices are to be sent to the Medical Council of India and the Central government.

The apex court had a few days ago also set aside admissions granted by the Kerala High Court on the basis of an interim ruling to 400 students in Al Azhar College, Thodupuzha, Mount Zion Medical College, Adoor, and DM Institute of Medical Sciences, Wayanad.

The Medical Council’s stand is that colleges with the requisite infra structure should not be allowed to admit students. The state government’s argument in the above case of 400 students is that they were taken from the NEET list therefore, their admissions should be allowed.

Kapil Sybil, the management’s Counsel argued that there were parallels in this case with the Saraswathi Charitable Trust, Karnataka and Appollo Institute of Medical Science, Hyderabad. The Counsel said that as these colleges were granted admissions by the apex court, a similar approach could be adopted in this case as well reports the Hindu.