AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday partly quashed a government ordinance abolishing the entire NRI quota in colleges offering medical courses in the state.
A division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi held unconstitutional the government’s decision to cancel quota for “genuine” NRIs seeking admission in colleges in the state, while upholding its decision to abolish quota for “dependent” NRIs.
The court observed that there was “no reason to remove the NRI quota entirely” as this amounted to violation of the Supreme Court order in the PA Inamdar case and hence, was unconstitutional.
It said that as per the Supreme Court order in the PA Inamdar case, limited reservation not exceeding 15 per cent may be given to NRIs. This reservation is available only for “genuine” NRIs and not their “dependents or sponsors”.
Partly allowing the petitions, the court said the wards of dependents of NRIs are also given admission under reservation, while the SC has only talked about reservation in the context of “genuine” NRIs.
“There is no reason to remove NRI quota, and hence the ordinance is set aside to the extent of removing genuine NRIs from the quota system. This, however, won’t apply to NRI dependents. Thus the writ application is partly allowed,” the court said.
The state government had earlier this year issued an ordinance, called the Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Colleges or Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, whereby the entire quota for NRIs in medical colleges was abolished.
The high court also refused to stay its order for two weeks when the lawyer of one of the five petitioners, a consortium of self-finance dental colleges, requested the same so that his client could move the Supreme Court.
Five petitioners, including a consortium of self-financed dental colleges and four NRI admission seekers, had challenged the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Professional Medical Educational Colleges or Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016.
PTI