The Bombay high court has refused to grant relief to private medical colleges that had challenged the state’s rule asking them to reserve 85 per cent of seats for domicile students.
The Bombay high court has refused to grant relief to private medical colleges that had challenged the state’s rule asking them to reserve 85 per cent of seats for domicile students.
Therefore, this year, admissions to private medical colleges will be filled up according to the state’s domicile policy.
There are around 20,000 state students vying for 1,634 seats. In June 2016, the state had introduced eligibility criteria rules for medical admission, and according to these rules private medical colleges have to fill up 85 per cent seats within the states and make domicile certificate mandatory for the medical admission.
A division bench of justice Manjula Chellur and Justice M.S. Sonak was hearing a bunch of petitions, including a petition filed by Mahatama Gandhi Vidya Mandir, a trust which runs a dental college in Nashik that challenged the new rule that requires students to have a domicile certificate or to have passed the secondary and higher secondary board level examinations from Maharashtra.
On Monday, while pronouncing the interim order, the court said, “We are not interfering with the state’s decision of compulsory domicile and therefore the interim relief petition is rejected.”
The court has deferred the final hearing of the matter for three weeks.
Earlier, when the matter had come up before the high court, the state government brought to the notice of the court that according to a Supreme Court order, admissions to medical and dental colleges should be completed before September 30. The high court had therefore directed the state government to keep two lists ready for admission: one would be according to the state rule and the other according to the NEET results.
The state government had also informed the high court that it could not allow students from outside Maharashtra to be admitted to private unaided medical and dental colleges in the state, in view of the absence of reciprocal opportunity for Maharashtrian students seeking admission to medical colleges in other states.
At least 15 per cent seats can be left as institutional quota to be filled in by the respective colleges at their level. Under this quota, the institutions can grant admission to any student from outside Maharashtra or to NRI students.
