Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has found fault with Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) for denying admission for MBBS to a student on the ground that it was not satisfied with the subjects pursued by the student. This was done even after the subject was approved by the Board of Intermediate, the court noted.
A division bench of Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice T. Amarnath Goud was dealing with a petition by Srikeerti Reddy Pingle, who completed Class XII at Conard High School under West Hartford Board of Education, Connecticut, USA. She applied for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test(NEET) undergraduate exam under the foreign national category and secured a rank.
When she went for counseling for admission under the management quota Category C (NRI), the university refused admission on the ground there was no proof of the student having studied biological science in the qualifying examination. This, even though the petitioner produced all the relevant documents including the equivalent certificate issued by the Telangana State Board of Intermediate and the certificate issued by the Consulate General of India in New York, recognising that 12th Year high school diploma obtained by Srikeerti Reddy in the USA was recognised in India as being equivalent to a pre-University two-year course.
The university remarked that there was no proof of study of the biological sciences subject in the qualifying examinations by the petitioner. It pointed out that the petitioner’s 12th Standard certificate showed that she had studied physics, chemistry and English. Medical Council of India regulations required that Graduate Medical Education candidates must have studied biology, physics and chemistry in Classes 11 and 12.
The authorities of at the Kaloji University did not accept a certificate issued by a school counsellor of Conard High School, stating that in the 10th Grade itself the petitioner had taken the advanced placement biology course where topics in biochemistry, cellular biology, organismal biology, population biology, evolution, genetics and ecology are taught in-depth and that this is a rigorous course of study in biology.
The court pointed out that when the expert members of Board of Intermediate validated that the certificate was equivalent to the original requirements, the university cannot raise objections by citing new reasons.
Moreover, the notification issued by Kaloji University for admissions under NRI quota mentioned that equivalent certificate from the TS Board of Intermediate Education (if the candidate passed a qualifying exam other than AP/TS/CBSE/ICSE) would suffice, and the petitioner had complied with that clause, the court pointed out.
It reiterated the Supreme Court direction as regards academic matters, which stated that academic issues fall within the domain of the experts committee and courts cannot get invovled in this. The expert committee of the Intermediate Board has recognized the certificate of the petitioner and hence there was need for intervention of the court, the bench said and directed the university to grant admission to the petitioner.
