Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In a significant ruling, the Jabalpur principal bench of High Court has asked the state government to immediately conduct fresh stray/special counselling for vacant NRI quota seats in private medical colleges.
The court’s order came in response to a petition challenging the allocation of NRI seats in postgraduate medical courses, highlighting discrepancies in the distribution of seats and the violation of prescribed quotas.
The petitioner, who cleared the All India NEET PG 2024 examination, argued that the state government’s practice of limiting NRI quota seats to just 8 out of 22 branches in private medical colleges was illegal and arbitrary.
The petitioner claimed that this selective allocation reduced the number of available seats for both reserved and unreserved category students, as it restricted the 15% NRI quota to only 8 clinical branches.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, the state government had reduced the number of NRI quota seats by allocating them only to 8 branches, whereas the 15% NRI quota should have been distributed among all 22 branches. This misallocation resulted in a severe shortage of seats for other deserving students.
The petitioner argued that by applying the NRI quota rule to only 8 branches, the government was manipulating the seat distribution in favour of NRI students and thereby depriving other students, particularly in non-clinical branches, of their rightful opportunities.
The court observed the petitioner’s contention that the selective distribution of seats was causing an imbalance, particularly in non-clinical branches, and ordered that the NRI quota be properly extended across all 22 branches.
The court also instructed the authorities to hold fresh counselling sessions and complete the admission process at the earliest, ensuring that the allocation of NRI quota seats follows the correct and fair distribution across all branches.
