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Dr Surmil Sharma & ors v. Office of the Chairman NEET PG & ors
The Petition has been filed by the petitioner at High Court of Rajasthan, they have preferred a Writ petition assailing action of NEET PG counselling Board which is not considering their candidature for admission on NRI quota which was available with Medical Colleges in a private field.
It has been noted that the petitioners appeared in NEET PG exam 2020 organized by National Board of Examination in which they qualified. The petitioners opted out for NRI quota and applied for the seats available at Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Jaipur under NRI quota in the subject of Radio-diagnosis and obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Jaipur had issued an advertisement mentioning about the distribution of seat out of total 144 seats. In which 50% of seats were filled from state quota, 35% seats were filled from all India quite and the rest 15% was for NRI/Management quota. In the subject of radio-diagnosis, 2 seats were available and in the subject of MS Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 2 seats were available in the NRI quota. Petitioners received a notice on 16th April 2020 to be ready for online counselling in which he opted for NRI quota.
On 17th March 2020, the chairman, state NEET PG Counselling Board issued a notice for allotment of the seat for the NRI quota was to be done through verification of NRI status on 30/03/2020. The later date was changed from 17/03/2020 to 10/04/2020 and verification date was changed to 14/04/2020.
Further, the petitioners stated that they were asked to get their document e- verified about NRI quota, the documents were submitted but as on 13th April 2020, the State NEET PG Counselling Board published seat matrix showing NRI quota as Nil.
Learned Counsel appearing for the respondent Medical Council of India and the State NEET PG Counselling Board and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College. So far as the college is concerned it is submitted that they had published quota seats as an advertisement and communicated the same to the NEET PG Counselling Board by letter dated 17th March 2020. Their counsel submitted that there was no occasion for not considering the candidature of petitioners for NRI quota and they are ready to give admission for the seats they have applied for.
Learned Counsel for the NEET PG Counselling Board stated that the NRI seats are only because the Medical College had sent seat allotment list for the seats under management as well for NRI candidates. No candidates have been allotted to college from NRI quota and the seats have been allotted only to management quota. Further, provided that the private medical colleges were for management quota, there was no NRI quota available.
Learned Counsel for the respondent submitted that the concept of NRI quota has been carved out by the constitutional bench of the Apex Court in PA Inamdar and ors v. the State of Maharashtra and ors (2005) in which it was said that the NRI quota candidates too have to clear the NEET PG Exam, their eligibility has to be seen as per clause B & C which lays down the criteria for foreign medical graduates and foreign national. Thus in round 1 of counselling, 15 % is required to be filled by NRI quota and if in round 2 of counselling no NRI candidates are available, then the seats can be made available for the candidates applying under the 15% quota of college. The seats have to be treated as NRI/Management seats. The counsel has relied on the judgement given by the High Court of Gujarat in Prati Shailesh Patel v. the State of Gujarat.
National Board of Examination has recognized the NRI quota candidates have to appear for the exam and be successful, then only they are entitled to opt for NRI quota for admission. In this case, both the candidates have cleared the exam and opted for NRI seats.
Mahatma Gandhi College published their seat matrix for NRI seats available for applying for NRI seats to the State PG Counselling Board. According to the State PG Counselling Board, the Medical College did not submit the NRI seat matrix to them. Counsel for the Medical College refutes the statement and submitted that the college did not distinguish between Management and NRI seats. The practise has been adopted for all the private colleges including Mahatma Gandhi Medical College to keep all the seats which were for NRI/Management as in management alone. Thus, the counselling board has interpreted the seats to be different for NRI and Management which goes against the law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The Court is of the view that NEET PG Counselling Board has mistaken in preparing two different columns for management seats and NRI seats. Thus, it is a subsequent event and it is only after filing NRI quota that the management seat concept emerges. The Board has not followed its own decision dated 17th March 2020.
The Court is of the view after considering the case of PA Inamdar's case laid down by the Supreme Court, it is held that the action of counselling Board is not considering candidature of NRI candidate and treating the seat as management seats are wholly illegal and unjust. It is directed to allot petitioners the seats in the subject of their choice.
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