NEET 2024 | Vacant NRI PG Seats In Private Colleges To Be Included In Last Round Of Counselling For General Quota: State To Madhya Pradesh HC

In a plea seeking inclusion of 48 vacant NRI seats of Private Medical Colleges and its conversion into General quota seats for meritorious candidates, the State government told the Madhya Pradesh High Court that if NRI seats are vacant, it will be filled from the General category based on merit in the last round of the counselling process of NEET-PG 2024.A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva and Justice Devnarayan Mishra was hearing a plea which claimed that 48 seats of NRI category candidates are lying vacant and those seats are not being offered to the candidates appearing in the First Round and in the Second Round and the Director Medical Education is waiting for new NRI Candidates whereas, factually it is impossible to get new NRI Candidates in the State because it has been exposed that "fictitious NRI category candidates have blocked the seats in Private Medical Colleges".The plea claimed that as per the directions of the Supreme Court the 48 seats must be converted for general category candidates who can get it as per merit and the seats should not go vacant.During the hearing on January 31, the State's counsel relied on Rule 14(A)(2) of the Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Admission Rules, 2018 and submits that in terms of Rule 14 (A)(2), in case the NRI seats are left vacant, "the same are to be included in the last round i.e. mop up round in the General Category and are to be filled on the basis of merit-cum choice". For context, there are three rounds of counselling in NEET-PG. The mop up round is the last round of the counselling process.The order thereafter noted,"She submits that the left over seats out of the 48 NRI seats that remain (ing) vacant shall be filled up at the time of mop up round from the General Category based on merit-cum-choice. The statement is taken on record". In view of the statement, the petitioner's counsel sought to withdraw the plea which was permitted by the high court. As per the factual matrix of the case, the petitioner–Dr. Khyati Shekhar–appeared in NEET-PG Exam 2024 as a General Category candidate securing a rank of 936 in the State. As per her Rank and State Percentile of 87.25 and NEET Percentile of 87.27 she would have got the best subject in the Post-Graduation in any of the Private Medical Colleges of Madhya Pradesh. But after completion of First Round of Counselling she was not allotted any seat, because of 48 fake NRI Candidates whose seats were blocked and not being offered to the students as per their merit position either in the first round or in the second round or in the mop-up/last round of counselling.It was submitted that even after Supreme Court's verdict in Index Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre v/s The State of Madhya Pradesh & Others (2021) and the verdict of Madhya Pradesh High Court in the matter of Dr. Yogyata Marothi (W.P. No. 28721 of 2023), the Director Medical Education is sleeping over the matter and the 48 seats reserved for NRI candidates are going to waste. The petitioner had sought a direction to the respondents to include the 48 seats allocated to the NRI quota in the General quota, in case they are not filled up by bonafide NRI candidates on the basis of merit. Case Title: Dr. Khyati Shekhar Versus The State Of Madhya Pradesh And Others, Writ Petition No. 3718 Of 2025Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (MP) 31Counsel for Petitioner: Senior Advocate Aditya SanghiCounsel for State: Adv. Janhavi PanditClick Here To Read/Download Order

NEET 2024 | Vacant NRI PG Seats In Private Colleges To Be Included In Last Round Of Counselling For General Quota: State To Madhya Pradesh HC

Anukriti Mishra

Tags