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MBBS, BDS admissions: Sports quota counselling postponed after aspirants move HC
Counselling for admission to 22 sports quota seats for MBBS (10) and BDS (12) courses in the state, scheduled on Tuesday, was deferred to Thursday. This was after
Counselling for admission to 22 sports quota seats for MBBS (10) and BDS (12) courses in the state, scheduled on Tuesday, was deferred to Thursday. This was after aspirants for seats under this quota filed a review petition in Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) over selection criteria for merit list. The HC will hear the matter on Wednesday.
On July 27, the HC had ordered that instead of relying upon the number of medals obtained by a sports candidate, the deciding factor for the merit of sportspersons with the same gradation should be their marks at the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-2019). Following this judgment, the university’s revised list for the quota had seen toppers move lower and vice-versa. Aspirants have now pleaded that the rankings should be based on the number of medals instead of the NEET ranking.
For these seats, the state sports department had submitted a revised merit list of 32 eligible candidates to Baba Farid University of Medical Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, the nodal agency for counselling for 23 medical and dental colleges in the state. Of these, 21 offer sports quota seats.
This counselling was scheduled before the second round, which went ahead as scheduled. After the first round, held after a delay of more than a month on August 27, 1,437 seats, including 56 All-India quota seats reverted to the state, were vacant. On Tuesday, two vacant MBBS seats under the Economically Weaker Sections quota were allotted. The consolidated figures for seats filled were not available till the filing of this report.
“We are conducting counselling for sports quota seats as per high court direction. The sports category is divided into three groups, international, national and state. As per the HC order, aspirants should be ranked in their respective groups, according to marks. However, some aspirants have filed a petition in the HC, demanding that they be ranked according to the number of medals,” said Dr Raj Bahadur, vice-chancellor, BFUHS.
He added, “Their demand is illegitimate as we are enroling medical students, not sportspersons. The merit list should be based on NEET ranks, not medals,” he added.
279 VACANT NRI SEATS TO BE MERGED WITH GENERAL
With only five of 284 vacant NRI-quota seats filled in the second counselling on Tuesday, the remaining 279 seats will be merged into the general category. The quota has a total of 316 seats. In 2018 too, 287 NRI quota seats in the state had remained vacant of 309 on offer and they were also merged into the general category.
