Unaided medical colleges can fill up their vacant NRI quota seats with meritorious general quota candidates, determined through their own entrance tests, the Supreme Court has held.
A three-judge bench of justices Deepak Verma, BS Chauhan and KS Radhakrishnan passed the interim order permitting some private medical colleges in Madhya Pradesh to fill up their vacant NRI seats for 2012-13, pending a constitution bench’s decision on a bunch of appeals on the issue.
The apex court held that the earlier ruling of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2010 in the R D Gardi Medical College case that the seats have to be filled up equally by the government and the private colleges was contrary to the 11-judge constitution bench ruling in the P A Inamadar case (2005).
“We are, therefore, inclined to allow both the applications and over rule the direction given by the two learned judges of this court in the RD Gardi Medical College case and hold that it is open to the unaided professional educational institutions to fill up unfilled NRI seats for the year 2012-13 and for the succeeding years through the entrance test conducted by them till the disposal of the appeal subject to the conditions laid down in Inamdar strictly on the basis of merits,” Justice Radhakrishnan writing the judgement said.
Petitioners Modern Dental College and Research and others had challenged the constitutional validity of ‘the Madhya Pradesh Niji Vyavsayik Shikshan Sanstha Vidhan’ (the Madhya Pradesh Private Professional Educational Institution Act), regulating medical admissions as it stipulated that unfilled NRI seats should be jointly filled by the government and the respective colleges.
–PTI