HC: No relaxation in eligibility criteria for NRI aspirants

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday quashed the petition seeking relaxation of eligibility percentage for non-resident Indian (NRI) MBBS aspirants in Punjab medical colleges from 50% to 45% in qualifying All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT)-2014.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday quashed the petition seeking relaxation of eligibility percentage for non-resident Indian (NRI) MBBS aspirants in Punjab medical colleges from 50% to 45% in qualifying All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT)-2014.

Justice K Kannan, while upholding the Punjab government’s March 7 notification and the eligibility criteria published in the prospectus issued by Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, dismissed the petition filed by Akanksha Sharma.

The judgment would now result in 94 unfilled NRI MBBS seats in the state going to the general category.

“It would be imper missible to a candidate who had taken the examination to then challenge the minimum criterion…Challenge to the notification cannot sustain,” said justice Kannan while dictating the judgment in the open court.

Rejecting the petitioner’s submission that there should not be any entrance exam for the NRI candidates, justice Kannan said,“I would even find that entrance test is a sure method of standardizing the merits of candidates who come from different school boards.”

The petitioner had submitted that students studying in schools abroad had different standards of education and it would be improper for having same standard for them in India.

“I have observed the past practice of no entrance for NRI or all states not following same process can’t be a ground in the petition after examination process is over,” added justice Kannan.

Appearing for the Medical Council of India (MCI), senior advocate Gurminder Singh had submitted that the MCI had made it clear that there was no scope of deviation from the set provisions of its regulations and even though the technical education subject comes under the concurrent list but the state gover nments cannot deviate from the guidelines laid down by the MCI for admissions.

Addressing one of the petitioners’ submissions that there should also be reduction in minimum eligibility criteria for nine seats of candidates from terrorist-affected families, the court said it didn’t find any possible scope to challenge the notification issued by the government, “criterion for assessing merit and reduction of marks for special category”.