NEET Admissions: Supreme Court Reserves Orders In Plea Seeking Fresh Registration In NRI Quota In Kerala Before Mop Up Counseling

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved orders in the Special Leave Petition filed by NRI students seeking time for fresh registration in the NRI quota in Kerala before commencement of the Mop-Up counseling. A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela Trivedi considered the SLP assailing Kerala High Court's order dated April 8, 2022 which dismissed the writ appeal preferred by Kerala Private Medical College Management Association ("KPMCMA"). In the impugned judgment the bench headed by Chief Justice S Manikumar had said, "Since it has been pointed out that the last date for admission for MBBS course is today 08.04.2022, as per the directions issued by the National Medical Commission, the appellants cannot be given liberty to grant time for fresh registration in NRI quota. We find that sufficient time was granted to the NRI quota candidates to exercise their option. Ext. P2 list was published as early as on 24.12.2021. Therefore, the same can only mean that no eligible NRI candidate is available to exercise option. We are not inclined to grant any relief to the appellants." On Friday, the bench had asked the State of Kerala to carry out a fresh exercise for the 38 NRI candidates claiming admission. This Is Computerized Process & If You Fill Up Your Option It'll Automatically Show Up: Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta for the State of Kerala commenced his submissions by apprising the bench with regards to the three categories in which the students were divided. Pursuant to the categorisation, Gupta said that at the stage of Mop Up round, the 4 candidates who had applied for the same were required to indicate the category for which they were applying. He further submitted that the NRI students were prepared to pay NRI fees for a good standard college. "This is a computerized process & if you fill up your option it'll automatically show up. If there were 4 persons who had opted NRI in colleges where three are NRI vacancies, the computer would have automaticity shown up and then the seats would have gone from 48 to 44. Persons who are getting it are in the merit much more. There are many more students in higher merit in the general category," Senior Counsel further submitted. State Could Not Convert The Seats At Stage Of Mop Up Since They Still Had To Conduct The Round Of Stray Counseling; Question Of Seats Being Unavailed Under 5.5.4 Can Only Be Done After The Mop Up Rounds; 614 Registered As NRI For 385 Seats : Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi appearing for the NRI students submitted that the exercise carried by the State was like creating a category within the category. Emphasizing on the State flipping seats belonging to NRI category to general category at the stage of Mop Up round, Ahmadi said that the State could not convert the seats at the stage of Mop Up since they still had to conduct the round of stray counseling. "There is a category which is promulgated by the committee itself & these are all registered NRI candidates. When you issue notification in respect of mop up round, you have a fresh option to students & at that stage it was possible for any students to swap the categories. Despite the persons paying fees of 1 lakh, when they tried paying the NRI option, they weren't able to click that. So far as 7 students are concerned, they were registered at NRI. If there were not many students at the time of mop up, they should have conducted another round and they did the flip at the Mop Up stage. They could not have done it at the stage of mop up. They still had a round of stray counseling," Ahmadi further submitted. "Students also, you know, it's not a gamble. They wanted NRI seats in particular colleges," remarked Justice DY Chandrachud at this juncture. Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi further submitted that at least the students who had registered the option as NRI should have been permitted to apply in different colleges. "Before the High Court the impression sought to be given that there were enough NRI seats. We have been kept in the dark, all the NRI candidates. 614 registered as NRI for 385 seats and they were not informed that the seats were abegging. Question of seats being unavailed under 5.5.4 can only be done after the mop Up rounds. As on 30th March 2022, when a request was made to register NRI fresh applicants the comm itself represented that there were 300 NRI Applicants and thus there is no question of registering more students. Committee fully knew that there are enough NRI students. If they were told that they would be able to get admission, they would have opted for them as well," Ahmadi further submitted. Urging for the bench to cancel the 45 admissions that were granted by converting the seats belonging to NRI category to general category, he also submitted that there was an element of ambiguity in the entire process ...

NEET Admissions: Supreme Court Reserves Orders In Plea Seeking Fresh Registration In NRI Quota In Kerala Before Mop Up Counseling

Shruti Kakkar

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