NRI quota in PG Medical courses in Pvt colleges not sacrosanct: SC

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 9

NRI quota in PG Medical and Dental courses was not “sacrosanct” in any given academic year and private medical colleges were not obligated to earmark such seats for admissions, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

If a medical college or institution or the state regulating authority decided to do away with such quota, then a reasonable notice of such a decision be issued to enable those aspiring for such seats to choose elsewhere, it said.

The verdict by a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat upheld the decision of the division bench of Rajasthan High Court which had ruled that private colleges are not obligated to earmark NRI quota up to the extent of 15 per cent of total seats.

Referring to seven-judge 2005 verdict in P A Inamdar versus State of Maharashtra, it said a plain reading of the judgment revealled that “a provision for 15 per cent NRI quota was not compulsory; it was only potential.”

“..it is evident that the NRI quota is neither sacrosanct, not inviolable in terms of existence in any given year, or its extent,” it said.

There was nothing in the 2005 verdict to say that a 15 per cent NRI quota was an unqualified and unalterable part of the admission process in post graduate medical courses, the top court said.

“It was, and remains within the discretionary authority of the management of private medical colleges, within their internal policy making domain,” it clarified.