Chennai: The Madras high court has ordered notice to the selection committee, Directorate of Medical Education and Medical Council of India, on an appeal, which sought to set aside an order of a single judge, dismissing a petition, challenging the selection process for the 207 seats that got reverted to the management quota owing to not getting filled under the NRI quota.
A division bench comprising Justices M.M.Sundresh and RMT.Teeka Raman posted to September 9, further hearing of an appeal filed by S.Dheeran, an aspiring medical student.
Appellant's counsel M.Velmurugan submitted that appellant has passed higher secondary in the year 2017 under the ISCE syllabus. The appellant had scored 303 marks out of 720 in the Neet conducted for the year 2019-2020. The appellant was also a sports person involved in the game of cricket, wherein he has played in the regional competition of Tamil Nadu region under ISCE school level competitions and further has been awarded with certificate of merits and awards towards the contribution to the game and as such he was entitled to qualify as a sports personality and claim reservation under special category in the admission for medical colleges for the year 2019-2020, he added.
Velmurugan said at present the entire admission process has been completed for all the other categories except the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota. There were 260 seats allocated to the NRI quota. It appears that call letters for counseling were sent to applicants under NRI quota to attend counseling on August 9, 2019, and the outcome of counseling was that only 53 persons were selected for admission under the NRI quota. About 207 seats fell vacant under the NRI quota. As per the prospectus, the vacant NRI seats shall revert back to the management quota. However, no guidelines has been provided as to in what manner the vacant NRI seats shall be filled up under the management quota. Since the appellant was having a possibility of getting a seat left vacant, the appellant attempted to enquire as to how the vacant NRI seats which revert to the management quota were likely to be filled up.
But, it was shocking to know that the Selection Committee was not likely to fill up the said vacant seats. But the respective private medical colleges seem to absorb the seats available with the respective colleges by themselves as per their own undefined priorities. The private colleges appear to be indulging in unethical practices like demanding money while filling the vacant NRI seats. Therefore, it would only be proper and appropriate for the available vacant NRI seats, presently vacant management seats were also filled up by the selection committee itself to meet the ends of transparency and to ensure that selection was based on merit and not on any other criteria. The appellant sent a representation in this regard. The appellant had also filed a petition. But a single judge dismissed it. Hence, the appellant filed the present appeal, he added.
